Barclays to Sell Customer Data: A Lesson of Insights — and Pitfalls — for Lenders

I recently stopped using Facebook because I realized that I spent way too much time on the site everyday, yet never really did anything, other than read about whatever banalities or trivialities were posted by my friends and acquaintances. I’m a pretty private person, and I could never really convince myself that people cared what I was doing or what I thought, so I never really posted anything to the site, nor did I ever really interact with others on it. So I stopped. And, honestly, I have not missed it at all. Not even a little bit. 

That notion of privacy in today’s internet generation is an interesting personal choice that everyone has to make. Some are tremendous over-sharers, telling the world what they are eating or watching on TV or how screwed up their bosses are. But I value my privacy and being able to keep certain things to myself.

One financial institution is starting to scratch away at its customers’ privacy, and you wonder how long it will be before that wall comes tumbling down.

Barclays, the U.K.-based financial institution, recently told 13 million customers that it has started to sell information about their spending habits to anyone who wants to buy that data. Barclays is quick to point out that it is anonymizing the data, to ensure that nobody is able to learn the specific habits of individuals, but that step cannot be that far off, can it?

For auto lenders, this new development presents some interesting opportunities.

Firstly, it opens a window into the spending habits of consumers, possibly allowing auto lenders to spot car-buying trends before they occur. Think of how an auto lender could benefit from seeing what consumers are buying on an aggregated basis. Seeing an uptick in purchases made at mechanics’ garages could be an indicator that more people are likely to be buying cars soon. 

Secondly, lenders themselves could start to sell aggregated data about their customers’ spending habits. While Barclays is claiming that it will not be profiteering off its customers, there are other institutions that may not act as morally. 

All in all, this is an eye-opening development that could spark outrage from consumer advocates while also creating an opportunity for third parties to gain valuable insights and access to never-before-seen data. Maybe that is worthy of sharing on Facebook. 

I recently stopped using Facebook because I realized that I spent way too much time on the site everyday, yet never really did anything, other than read about whatever banalities or trivialities were posted by my friends and acquaintances. I’m a pretty private person, and I could never really convince myself that people cared what I was doing or what I thought, so I never really posted anything to the site, nor did I ever really interact with others on it. So I stopped. And, honestly, I have not missed it at all. Not even a little bit. 

That notion of privacy in today’s internet generation is an interesting personal choice that everyone has to make. Some are tremendous over-sharers, telling the world what they are eating or watching on TV or how screwed up their bosses are. But I value my privacy and being able to keep certain things to myself.

One financial institution is starting to scratch away at its customers’ privacy, and you wonder how long it will be before that wall comes tumbling down.

Barclays, the U.K.-based financial institution, recently told 13 million customers that it has started to sell information about their spending habits to anyone who wants to buy that data. Barclays is quick to point out that it is anonymizing the data, to ensure that nobody is able to learn the specific habits of individuals, but that step cannot be that far off, can it?

For auto lenders, this new development presents some interesting opportunities.

Firstly, it opens a window into the spending habits of consumers, possibly allowing auto lenders to spot car-buying trends before they occur. Think of how an auto lender could benefit from seeing what consumers are buying on an aggregated basis. Seeing an uptick in purchases made at mechanics’ garages could be an indicator that more people are likely to be buying cars soon. 

Secondly, lenders themselves could start to sell aggregated data about their customers’ spending habits. While Barclays is claiming that it will not be profiteering off its customers, there are other institutions that may not act as morally. 

All in all, this is an eye-opening development that could spark outrage from consumer advocates while also creating an opportunity for third parties to gain valuable insights and access to never-before-seen data. Maybe that is worthy of sharing on Facebook.