You Are What You Pay – Personal Profiling with Alternative Payment Data and the Data Protection Law

Abstract

The global trend toward cashless payment started well before the corona pandemic. Along with it, investors in the data-driven tech industry are inspired by the promise of targeted behavioral scoring based on big data. It seems economically tempting to combine these two trends by using all data generated by the payment services to create personal profiles. However, this business model conflicts with the individual’s right of informational self-determination and raises questions regarding inaccuracies, discrimination, and the non-transparency of the algorithms underlying these profiles. Our article provides a short overview over the recent economic developments in the financial service industry and a legal assessment in light of the GDPR. Not everything that is feasible with big data scoring using alternative payment data is legally allowed in Europe. Nevertheless, traditional banks could have the opportunity to improve their internal credit scoring systems and use individual customer profiles to further market their financial services.