Google has taken down online lending apps (OLAS) JuanHand, Pesopop, CashJeep, and Lemon Loan, following the orders from the National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Wednesday, September 1.

Due to “privacy risk” for individuals who downloaded the apps, Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro moved to urge other OLAS to comply with the law when processing data of loan applications.

“For other OLAs, the NPC strongly urges you to employ know-your-customer (KYC) and debt collection practices that are aligned with NPC Circular No. 20-01, where we laid out guidelines on the processing of personal data for loan-related transactions,” Liboro said.

The privacy agency instructed the four app operators Wefund Lending Corp. (JuanHand), Joywin Lending Investor Inc. (Lemon Loan), Cash8 Lending Corp. (CashJeep), and Populus Lending Corp. (Pesopop) to stop the processing of borrowers’ personal data.

Through NPC’s coordination with Google LLC, the Commission ordered the removal of these apps after it found out that they can process the user’s personal information such as contacts, location, photos, media files, email, and social media data that may lead to exposing the borrowers from any harm.

The four lending apps were downloaded more than 2.1 million times from Google Play Store, according to NPC.

As of writing, there are 26 online lending apps that were taken down and were no longer available for download due to shaming delinquent borrowers of using their personal information.

Source: https://www.privacy.gov.ph/2021/09/google-takes-down-apps-on-orders-of-npc/