Admiral Insurance’s plans to use Facebook profile data to influence premiums have hit a brick wall after Facebook blocked the company.
The social media giant said that the insurance company would not be able to use its tool to access Facebook posts to determine insurance premiums.
Admiral had planned to launch its firstcarquote initiative today, with the company saying that it would help young people and first time car owners to get insurance by analysing Facebook posts and determining character traits that would lower quotes.
However, a Facebook spokesperson said: “Protecting the privacy of the people on Facebook is of utmost importance to us. We have clear guidelines that prevent information being obtained from Facebook from being used to make decisions about eligibility.”
The issue is that the insurance tool contravenes Facebook’s Platform Policy section 3.15, which says: “Don’t use data obtained from Facebook to make decisions about eligibility, including whether to approve or reject an application or how much interest to charge on a loan.”
Facebook said that it believes that Admiral would ask users to sign up and answer questions that would be then used to assess eligibility, in clear breach of the social media company’s rules.
“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 login and verification purposes. Our understanding is that Admiral will then ask users who sign up to answer questions which will be used to assess their eligibility,” Facebook said.
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Admiral has not said how it will respond to being blocked by Facebook.
