Original link: https://www.williamlong.info/archives/7130.html
News on April 7, according to reports, recently, as the manager of the Android ecosystem, Google has been criticized for allowing the application software of the online lending platform to run amok, collecting data on consumers’ mobile phones, and conducting harassment and extortion. . It is reported that Google has begun to take measures to crack down on these lending applications, prohibiting them from accessing the contacts, photos, geographic location and other information in the borrower’s mobile phone.
On Wednesday, local time, Google announced that before the end of May, the company will introduce new regulations on the behavior of personal financial service software in the Play application store. At that time, application software that provides personal loan services may not be able to access personal information such as user contacts and photos. .
The detailed information provided by Google to Android software developers shows that the lending software will restrict access to information such as the geographical location of the user’s mobile phone, the mobile phone number and video content in the future. This is the first time that the Google Store has made such restrictions.
Google’s rectification of personal financial service software includes personal loans, payday loans (one to two weeks short-term loans), P2P network loan software, but does not include housing mortgage loans, car consumer loans and credit card related software.
Some previous studies have found that in the Google Play store, there are hundreds of personal financial service software that excessively collect personal information, and they require access to extremely private information in users’ mobile phones. The software claims that this private data is necessary for personal credit checks or risk assessments. This can often obtain the consent of the user.
However, in India, Mexico and other countries, some Android phone users have reported that they have been violated by financial service applications. harassment.
Some financial services software is actually “taking advantage of others.” At present, in many countries, inflation is getting worse, energy prices are rising, and people’s living costs are rising. Some users are anxious to obtain loans, and often agree to the excessive collection of personal privacy requirements of lending platforms.
At the end of last year, the network security company “Lookout” conducted a study and found that there were about 250 Android financial service software around the world, which had violations of excessive collection of personal privacy data and harassment during debt collection. The accumulative downloads of these financial software have exceeded 15 million times, covering regions such as Africa, Southeast Asia, India, Colombia and Mexico.
In the Apple App Store, the company also found 35 loan apps with problems. Apple and Google removed the problematic software from their respective app stores after the Lookout study was released.
For the new round of rectification actions, Google officials did not comment. It is reported that the Google Store has previously blocked all loan software with a loan period of less than 60 days.
Online lending platforms are growing rapidly around the world, and many countries have introduced new policies to regulate and rectify them. In the US market, Google and Apple blocked all usury software with an annual interest rate reaching and exceeding 36%. The companies have also introduced some restrictions in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan.
It is reported that currently in the global smartphone operating system market, Android accounts for 70% of the share, and it is estimated that there are as many as 3 billion active users worldwide, including a large number of mobile phone users in the Chinese market.
Manuscript source: Sina.com
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