Google Play India cracks down on violating India-based Personal Loan apps

Google India has recently announced that it has pulled a number of personal loan apps from its Google Play marketplace. The company has stated that these are apps that violate local laws and safety policies. There have been numerous Indian-based lending mobile apps on Google Play that breached the companies policies.

Google Play reviews more than 100 personal loan apps

Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy, Google India, recently wrote in a blog post that the company has reviewed more than a hundred personal loan mobile applications operating in the country. She added that these apps were reviewed based on all the flags that were submitted by both the government agencies and users.

Suzanne further stated that all of the violating apps were immediately pulled from the Playstore, while also adding that the tech giant has asked the app development team of the remaining identified apps to prove that they are in compliance with the local laws and regulations.

Ms. Frey also confirmed that all the apps which fail to comply with the applicable local laws and regulations will be removed from Google Play without any warning. Frey noted that she will be helping the law enforcement team as they continue to investigate the issue. However, the company hasn't revealed the names of Indian lending apps that have been removed.

She also explained in the post that the company will only allow those personal loan apps on its platform that have 'full repayment required in greater than or equal to 60 days from the date the loan is issued'. This is to make sure that people using such apps make sound decisions. In regards to user privacy protection, she added that the apps should request only those permissions from users that were crucial for implementing existing services and features. Frey further explained that the developers shouldn't use permissions that gave access to the user or device data for undisclosed, unimplemented, or disallowed features or purposes.

There has been a sudden rise in online and mobile-based lending platforms over the past few years. The Reserve Bank of India had also cautioned users to be aware of unauthorised digital lending services and not to fall prey to them.

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