NEW YORK: Your loan approval will now depend on your Facebook friends -- thanks to a new patent that the social networking giant has recently secured.

The new feature would allow lenders to use the borrower's social habits to determine approval of credit.

The patent explains that if one applies for a loan, the lender could potentially check out the credit rating of your Facebook friends, The Next Web reported.

The average credit rating of your friends collectively needs to be at least a minimum credit score for the loan to be approved.

Does this mean that you would have to "unfriend" all those people who are in debt, or have failed to repay their EMIs on time? But how would one know about the credit history of their friends?

Experts say there is no reason to lose your sleep over it just yet as Facebook has not made it clear how this patent would be used. Besides, there are laws in place that determine the criteria that lenders can use when deciding your credit worthiness.

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