Italy's UniCredit Has Stopped Advertising on Facebook
August 07 2018 - 2:48PM
Dow Jones News
By Giovanni Legorano and Deepa Seetharaman
Italy's largest bank, UniCredit SpA, stopped advertising on
Facebook Inc. in March, due to allegedly unethical behavior by the
social-media giant related to a scandal involving data firm
Cambridge Analytica.
UniCredit's decision was unveiled Tuesday by the bank's chief
executive, Jean-Pierre Mustier, in response to a reporter's
question on whether the bank has shared customers' information with
Facebook.
The reporter's question was prompted by an article published on
Monday by The Wall Street Journal, which detailed how Facebook had
asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information
about their customers, including card transactions and
checking-account balances, as part of an effort to offer new
services to users.
Mr. Mustier said the bank never shares customer information and
had stopped using Facebook for its advertising and marketing
campaigns. He added that it won't advertise on Facebook again until
the U.S. company improves its ethical standards.
"UniCredit has stopped all advertising with Facebook due to
recent incidents and the company's reaction to them," Mr. Mustier
said. "The Group takes ethics very seriously."
A Facebook spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment.
A UniCredit spokesman said the bank had decided to stop using
Facebook for advertising campaigns at the end of March, following
news about the company's connections to Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook faces several investigations over its ties to Cambridge
Analytica, which accessed data on as many as 87 million Facebook
users without their consent.
The Italian bank still maintains several Facebook pages which it
regularly uses to interact with its customers.
UniCredit is Italy's largest bank by assets. It has operations
in several European countries, including Russia, but only a small
presence in the U.S.
Write to Giovanni Legorano at giovanni.legorano@wsj.com and
Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 07, 2018 14:33 ET (18:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Unicredit (BIT:UCG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Unicredit (BIT:UCG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024