Facebook has forced British car insurer Admiral to modify its plans to use Facebook data as a price-setting tool for first-time drivers.
After Admiral announced its plans in newspapers Wednesday, Facebook objected to the move because it would violate users’ privacy, Reuters reported. The program would have let users give access to their Facebook data to show they are responsible so they could earn a lower insurance rate.
The firstcarquote program was only two hours away from launching when it was pulled, The Guardian reported. Facebook knew about the program for months, and it had been operating in a test format for weeks. After Admiral's program was pulled, it was relaunched so that users could log in using Facebook, but it would no longer use their data to determine rates.
Admiral and Facebook are discussing possible ways for the product to work as intended, but Facebook remains adamant that using personal data to make decisions about eligibility for any product or for how much interest to charge violates section 3.15 of Facebook’s platform policy.
“We have made sure anyone using this app is protected by our guidelines and that no Facebook user data is used to assess their eligibility. Facebook accounts will only be used for log-in and verification purposes,” a spokesman told Reuters by email.
Admiral's program planned to use Facebook information about users’ habits to determine who might be a safer driver. Habits like making lists and arranging to meet friends at a set time and place would be considered conscientious and safer than other users.
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