Loan apps in Pakistan have been in hot waters recently with the likes of FIA initiating large-scale crackdowns, resulting in many office shutdowns and app removals from the Google Play Store.
Speaking of Google, the search engine giant has also launched stricter policies against these apps in collaboration with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
If you have been keeping up with these apps, you would know that the suspicion is not uncalled for. They do collect a dubious amount of data after all. Here are the details.
Too Many Permissions
Popular loan apps, even the ones registered with the SECP, need a suspicious amount of permissions, even for simple tasks. Barwaqt, for instance, needs to see all your phone gallery, your contacts, your app activity, and all your personal info.
The screenshot below has been taken from Barwaqt’s Google Play Store page.
While other popular apps such as JazzCash and Easypaisa don’t list their lineup of necessary permissions on the app store, you can see the full list once you download their apps on your phone. Take a look.
As you can see, these apps require a whole lot of data from you too. Granted, you can always choose to disallow any of this data collection on modern versions of Android, but their existence in the first place is highly questionable. Keep in mind that these apps have more than 70 million downloads on Android combined.
Other SECP-registered apps including EasyLoan and Muawin are also guilty of the same practices. These apps have over a million downloads altogether.
Not Surprising
None of this comes as a surprise if you have been following the story. These apps have gotten into trouble in the past as well for all this data collection. Whether all this data is used for their own good or sold to third parties is a question we can only speculate about.
On the bright side, SECP did announce that it has issued a warning to its registered apps including Barwaqt to fix their predatory practices or face closure within a week.
Significant strict restrictions are imposed on Loan Apps Debt recovery methods. Those not following will be shut down.
Along with that apps like Barwaqt that are registered with SECP have been given warning notice to change all predatory practices within a week or face closure. pic.twitter.com/FK9ZBQD6S3
— Salman Sufi (Get New Covid Booster Today) (@SalmanSufi7) July 22, 2023
