TIME reports on a change of plans by Germany's largest credit reporting agency to use social networking to determine if a person is credit-worthy. Schufa had established a research group to determine how to link social networking information to other details about a person's credit rating, but a public outcry following media coverage of the plans prompted the university slated to do the research to back out of the plans. Privacy advocates say similar plans are likely in the not-too-distant future, given the amount of data collected by companies and the widespread interest in trying to use that information to generate revenue.
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