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Facebook Pay Is a New Name for What Facebook Was Already Doing With Your Data
The initiative highlights how confusing the connections between Facebook’s various payment systems have been until now
Facebook announced a new feature this week that will allow customers to make transactions using the same payment method across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In the process, it inadvertently revealed what a mess Facebook payments have been up to this point.
In a statement to CNN Business, Facebook’s vice president of marketplace and commerce Deb Liu explained that part of the reason for this initiative, called Facebook Pay, was to “make sure that it’s really clear to people — that they have an understanding that these are unified products.” Like Apple Pay, the whole Facebook Pay system will have one banner, so users always know who’s getting their info and how it’s used.
This sort of clarity has been sorely lacking in Facebook’s various disparate and disconnected payment systems up to this point. Facebook has been dabbling in users’ financial information as far back as 2015, when it first allowed users to send money to each other through Messenger. Since that time, the company has made it possible to go shopping and donate to fundraisers on its platform, while…
