A sign of a progressive, social media-savvy company, or an intrusive breach of trust between brand and customer? The debate is occurring within companies every day: how do we responsibly use social media to learn more about your customers? There are no easy answers, particularly for highly regulated industries like financial services where transparent customer interaction is not only key, but legislated.

In recent days, RapLeaf, a San Francisco-based firm that has compiled profiles on over 388 million people by examining their social network usage and then sells the data to companies “to optimize marketing efforts, manage fraud risk, and increase overall customer understanding,” has come under fire by the mainstream media. We include here a somewhat alarmist ABC News report on the practice, highlighting the concerns of privacy advocates:

For the record, RapLeaf says an errant Tweet will not sink your credit rating.