The nation is seeing an increasing use of the social media by debt collectors as a medium to collect debts and track debtors. This is a relatively new phenomenon and is putting consumer agencies to concern as the degree of infringement on privacy, when it comes to the social media is not clearly defined and as a result can be taken advantage of by the debt collectors. In response to such growing concern, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is planning on finding ways to make social media as a tool to collect debt but not by putting consumers to inconvenience. Although there have been talks about setting up new rules and guidelines by consumer forums, the FTC claims that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) has enough criteria to cover the protection of customers from unfair collection means even on social media.
According to some executives in the collection industry, the current guidelines of the FDCPA more than cover what is required for protection in the social media. A few instances are; according to the law, debt collectors are not allowed to lie or misrepresent themselves when they are collecting a debt. If this rule to extended to social media, a debt collector cannot create a false profile and mislead users on Facebook in order to gather information on the whereabouts of a debtor. Thus you can see how rules of FDCPA can be used to make provisions for protection of consumer’s privacy in social media. Another instance of an FDCPA rule that can help to protect the privacy of the consumer in social media is that debt collectors cannot contact a debtor through a post card which is considered as infringement upon the debtor’s privacy. They are also not allowed to discuss the debt with anyone other than the debtor. If this law is extended to social media, it would be illegal for debt collectors to post messages on the Facebook wall of the debtor.
It should be kept in mind that even though FDCPA guidelines can prevent the events mentioned above, there is nothing in the law that can prevent debt collectors from using social media websites to gather information about the whereabouts of the debtor. Debtors should refrain from posting or sharing certain information online if they don’t want this information for everybody to know. This is the main reason why many in the debt collection agency have asked the FTC to provide more guidelines on how the debt collectors can use the new technology of social media to their benefit. This is mainly to make it easier to collect consumer debt which is increasing and making the economy weaker.
Jake williams is a financial writer who has expertise in dealing with financial issues. He loves to contribute financial write ups to websites and blogs so that he can help people who are struggling with financial worries. To know more on ways in which you can get out of any kind of debt obligations, you may visit http://www.facebook.com/