Google will prevent apps that offer loans to individuals from gaining access to their photos, videos, and contacts in a bid to address predatory behavior from some lenders.
"We’re updating our personal loans policy to state that apps aiming to provide or facilitate personal loans may not access user contacts or photos," according to Google, which says the change goes into effect on May 31.
In Pakistan, it will also require "country-specific licensing documentation to prove their ability to provide or facilitate personal loans."
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As TechCrunch notes, in countries like Kenya and India, individuals who have received loans from mobile credit apps have been on the receiving end of harassment after failing to repay those loans. By accessing borrowers’ personal contacts and their personal images, debt collectors have sent manipulated photos to friends and family of debtors. A number of these targeted individuals took their lives after the harassment, TechCrunch says.
In response to the widespread debt harassment, last year Google removed hundreds of loan apps from the Play Store in Kenya and over 2,000 loan apps from India.
The policy is being rolled out in markets hardest hit by the practice, like India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines.