Policy Violation: Google takes enforcement action on 3,500 loan apps on Play Store in India

The strict actions come amid reports of abuse of money borrowers by recovery agents hired by loan app companies in India

Google on Thursday (April 27) released the report on bad apps and data on loan apps.

The search revealed that it prevented more than 1.43 million apps from entering the Play Store, as they violated its policy.

Add to that it banned more than 173,000 fraud developer accounts and was able to prevent $2.3 billion worth of fraud transactions around the world.

And, Google has so far prevented 500,000 submitted apps from unnecessarily accessing sensitive permissions over the past 3 years.

In India, Google took enforcement action against more than 3,500 loan apps for violating company policies.

The strict actions come amid reports of abuse of money borrowers by recovery agents hired by loan app companies. There have several cases of people taking the step of suicide due to the constant harassment.

Must read | Bengaluru banker kills himself over 'torture' after borrowing Rs 37,000 from loan apps

In the last two years, Google has revised its policy for financial apps in particular in India.

All financial apps operating in India have to submit a declaration of confirming that they are either licensed by the RBI to provide personal loans and submit a copy of the license or alternatively, confirm that they only provide a platform to facilitate money lending by duly licensed lenders.

Also, in 2022, Google made it mandatory for developers offering personal loans in India as facilitators on behalf of NBFCs and banks, requiring them to also prominently disclose the names of all their partner NBFCs and banks in the app’s description and provide a live URL to the respective websites of partner NBFCs and banks where they are listed as an official agent, as part of the Personal Loan App Declarations

Google earlier in the month announced a revised privacy policy for loan apps that barred access to phone user’s contacts and other sensitive information on Android phones.

Read more | Google revises personal loan apps policy in India, blocks access to photos, contacts