Would You Manage Your Money Through The Newspaper?
Wesabe and the UK Telegraph Think You Might
Online money management service Wesabe and the UK newspaper giant The Telegraph have entered a partnership to offer co-branded tools on the Telegraph website. It's a daring move, we can't help but admire it. We can't help but wonder how users will feel about it too, though.
Wesabe says the partnership is big validation for its model of openness with data. A big increase in the number of Wesabe users will help make the company's aggregate data analysis and financial tips all the more useful, it says.
We like this idea and it's clear that many people want to use online services to monitor and manage their finances. There's no doubt that many of the Telegraph's tens of millions of monthly visitors wouldn't have found out about Wesabe any other way. It does sound like a great convenience, as the company says, to be able to manage money in the same place that you get your news.
We suspect that there will be richer integration of Wesabe into Telegraph pages in the future. We can imagine, for example, news recommendations based on a reader's investment history. Something like the recent LinkedIn/NYTimes partnership.
Still, we wonder how comfortable people will be with this particular choice of partners.
Do You Want the Newspaper to Have a Direct Line to Your Finances?
Privacy is a touchy concern and it's generally assumed that personal finances are one of the most private matters in peoples' lives. None the less, online personal finance services like Wesabe and competitor Mint are growing fast. The value they are able to add on top of existing banking options online is substantial, though there may not be a big barrier to entry if established banks decide to offer similar features.
Partnership options are always interesting, and technology plays in finance are often fascinating - but the newspaper? We're not sure that an institution founded on the premise that it tells everyone everything is really the best choice to do personal finance through.
We like the idea of newspapers working with data (see what The Guardian is doing), but not necessarily our personal financial data - even if it is worked with in anonymous aggregate. Are we alone in that thinking? We doubt it.
What about readers? Are you comfortable, excited even, with the prospect of doing personal finance through your local newspaper? We suspect our readers are disproportionately uninterested in such things as you are more likely to know about these services independently. Still, isn't there something a little crazy about this?
Readers interested in learning more about this sector should check out our recent podcast edition of ReadWriteTalk on the topic, with executives from Wesabe, Mint and Tip'd as guests.
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Privacy is very important. Wesabe doesn't share any personally identifiable user data with the Telegraph.
Wesabe makes aggregate, anonymous data available to any third party (for example, via the Tips page here: https://www.wesabe.com/tips). The Telegraph has the same access to this data that everyone else has by browsing Wesabe. You can check out our Privacy policy, specifically under "How we use your information", here: https://www.wesabe.com/page/privacy"
Nate - I understand that. It's not necessarily a rational concern, I'm just saying that I'm not sure a newspaper is the most intuitive partner for a service like yours. I genuinely hope I'm alone in that feeling as I am cheering for you to succeed. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, though.
Privacy is overrated on the web. Its value is decreasing with time. If there is a compelling value addition with this integration people will definitely come.
As for me I would love to see both these sides exposing interfaces for their data and some kind of client side magic (may be a browser plugin) to provide the required mashed up view. That way I don't have to rely on any of the integrating parties for my privacy.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'Privacy is overrated on the web. Its value is decreasing with time' In what way is it overrated and how do you ascribe a value to it?
I consider myself to be significantly more tech-savvy than most and to be much more rational when it comes to concerns about my personal privacy than the average web user. Yet I have a nagging discomfort at the idea of making my personal finances available in this way.
Sure, the data is anonymous at the most basic level. But at some stage it's linked with an account and an IP address. If these links are maintained anywhere then there is a risk of privacy being compromised, although I accept it's a small risk.
The interesting point about the Telegraph's involvement is that its target demographic is older and less tech savvy than average. Does this mean its readers will be more or less concerned about data integrity than me?
I am not sure on the idea, I like to keep certain information away organisations letting multiple organisation know and track your movements seems that you are opening yourself up to losing your information. Newspapers should stick to news.
Privacy is a relative concept so the meaning of it changes with time. When I talk about value I don't mean absolute value but perceived value which could be different for different people.
The number of people who care about privacy is decreasing with time (ex. younger people will care less about sharing their personal information). Every time you visit a site, make a purchase or do a google search you are telling someone something about you.
Same questions about privacy were raised not a long time back for financial aggregation sites like Mint and Wesabe but now people are comfortable with the idea even when we know that they do provide that information (summarized and aggregated) to their advertising partners.
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.
privacy is so important!
Hi Marshall Kirkpatrick,
Thanks for rooting for us! I hope my first comment didn't sound harsh, my intensions were to share a few specifics in order to prevent confusion about what the partnership with the Telegraph means for user privacy. Great article, and thanks for your kind response!
I assume everybody would try to keep their finances in private, mostly in a world where information is available everywhere and people is just looking for mistakes to steal others people money.