Barclays Bank is to start selling data on its millions of current and savings account customers to other companies for the first time.The bank has told savers that it intends to package together "information about the transactions on your account" with data on groups of other customers to compile reports on spending trends across Britain. This could then be passed on other companies or Government departments.

Under the changes, which take effect in the autumn, the bank will also start tracking customers through their mobile phones or other "devices" - to help protect them from fraud. If a payment is made in a certain country, Barclays will "ping" the customer's mobile number to check if the phone is in that country. The move by Barclays has been laid out in changes to terms and conditions, sent to customers around the country, that take effect from the start of October this year.

It forms part of a growing trend for companies who have realised they can generate new revenue streams by selling data on their customers. Just days ago, the biggest mobile phone operators in the country, Vodafone, EE and O2, said they would start selling bundles of anonymised data on their customers to big advertisers to help them target different age groups and demographics.....Read more HERE