New Facebook Pay tool lets you send cash to mates and shop for goods on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram
FACEBOOK has unveiled a new way to pay back your mates or do a bit of shopping from within its apps.
Facebook Pay allows you to sling cash to people or businesses from WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram without leaving the apps.
The firm said the service would allow users to send money or make a payment with security options such as PIN, fingerprint or face scans on their smartphones.
"Facebook Pay is part of our ongoing work to make commerce more convenient, accessible and secure for people on our apps," said Deborah Liu, Facebook’s vice president of marketplace and commerce.
"We’ll continue to develop Facebook Pay and look for ways to make it even more valuable for people on our apps."
Slippery boss Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year the company is planning to unify its apps into a single platform.
He said the company would encrypt conversations on more of its messaging services and make them compatible.
Direct messaging was likely to dwarf discussion on the traditional, open platform of Facebook's news feed in a few years, the 35-year-old added.
Facebook Pay will roll out Facebook Pay on Messenger and Facebook in the US this week.
What info does Facebook hold on you?
- All the data on your profile - name, age, marital status, where you went to work, and so on.
- Your activity on the site - which posts you like, pages followed, photos shared.
- Its tracker cookies (which most websites use) can even follow you around the internet, so Facebook can also get an idea of the types of websites you like to visit – to serve you more relevant advertisements.
It's not clear if or when the firm plans to launch the service in the UK.
Facebook said the tool will collect user information such as payment method, date, billing and contact details when a transaction is made.
The data will be used the data to show targeted advertisements to users.
Advertising practices of Facebook have been in the spotlight for the past few years amid growing discontent over its approach to privacy and user data.
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