The Telegraph has reported that Barclays Bank is set to start selling its customers’ data to 3rd parties, following a change in their terms and conditions.
From October 2013, Barclays will share anonymised, aggregated data on spending trends with other companies and Government departments, in a move which is likely to alarm customers who are worried about the (mis)use of their personal data.
The timing of this information is made even more intriguing by the recent launch of Barclays Money Tools, a personal financial management (PFM) tool which aims to help customers control their spending, budget and save. A tool which is specifically designed to get customers to think about their transactions. There is no account aggregation element to Money Tools, so only data from their Barclays accounts is analysed, and of course, the data shared will only be from Barclays sources too. Should Barclays add account aggregation to Money Tools though, then you’d think it would only be a matter of time until they’d also integrate this transaction data into the data they sell.
The change in terms also allow Barclays to track customers’ mobile devices, to help check for fraudulent transactions. Customers will be able to opt out of this tracking, but not from having their data sold.
Barclays’ new terms will allow them to hold information on the client collected during interactions with them on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook.
The changes to the terms and conditions can be found on Finextra (PDF) – Barclays customers should also receive a letter confirming these changes in the near future.
Are you a Barclays customer? What do you think of the changes to their terms and conditions? Let us know in the comments below.