Facebook blocks Admiral's latest car insurance product

Admiral’s launch of a new app for first-time car owners has been postponed after Facebook blocked the insurer from sifting through the profiles of some of its users to determine what kind of driver they would be as this would breach its usage policy.

With its 'firstcarquote' app, which had been due to launch on Wednesday, Admiral was planning to look at drivers’ Facebook profiles to set the cost of their car insurance.

“There's a proven link between personality and how people drive, and our clever technology allows us to predict who is likely to be a safe driver,” Admiral said on its website.

“We already know that social media posts can tell us whether a person is a good or a bad credit risk and this is true for cars too. It's scientifically proven that some personalities are more likely to have an accident than others. But standard insurance questions don't tend to measure personality.”

Admiral is understood to be in talks with Facebook but for now the insurer’s plans have been blocked following criticism from privacy campaigners.

A Facebook spokesman 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.

"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.”

The Open Rights Group, an organisation that works to raise awareness of digital rights and civil liberties issues, welcomed Facebook’s decision.

Executive director Jim Killock said: “We need to think about the wider consequences of allowing companies to make decisions that affect us financially or otherwise, based on what we have said on social media.

“Such intrusive practices could see decisions being made against certain groups based on biases about race, gender, religion or sexuality – or because their posts in some way mark them as unconventional. Ultimately, this could change how people use social media, encouraging self-censorship in anticipation of future decisions.”

Facebook’s Platform Policy section 3.15 states that its data should not be used to make decisions about eligibility, including whether to approve or reject an application or how much interest to charge on a loan.