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Gatchalian warns public: 'Lending apps have become very sophisticated'
Philippines
National
Gatchalian warns public: 'Lending apps have become very sophisticated'
Gatchalian warns public: 'Lending apps have become very sophisticated'
Published Jun 25, 2023 06:16 am
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday, June 25 urged the public to be wary of finance applications that can be downloaded online on Google Play or Apple Store and other websites but are actually lending applications that victimizes oblivious customers.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian (Senate PRIB Photo)
Gatchalian said his contacts in the financial technology business told him that many of these lending applications can track a mobile phone users’ day-to-day activities. “These applications that users download are so sophisticated that it's scary. For example, the app can actually track down where you are going, where you buy your clothes, where you work. As they said, these apps can track when a person goes to work Mondays to Fridays and what office that person goes to,” Gatchalian said in Filipino in an interview on Radio DZBB. “It can also have an idea if a person is a gambler if it can track him going to a casino Mondays to Fridays, even up until night. They create a profile out of his activity so they would know what type of person they would offer a loan,” he said. This actual profiling, he said, is illegal and an outright violation of the Data Privacy Act. “Many people may think that the app is harmless, but if they continue to press the button ‘allow’ continuously, they are unaware that their mobile phones are now being tracked--including their contacts, pictures—by these lending applications,” he said. “There are two things we can do: Let’s not go into these apps; second, let’s check these lending apps if they are registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),” added the senator, who recently filed a resolution calling for a Senate probe into the existence of lending applications that have been harassing many people. Gatchalian said the BSP, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), must be proactive in monitoring and preventing these lending applications from further victimizing people. “These lending apps are getting very sophisticated. I think they masquerade as a finance application in the Apple store but when you download it, its actually a lending app,” he said. “So the BSP, and the SEC, must be proactive in detecting these kind of activities that are illegal and they should report it immediately to the Apple store or Play store and have these deleted,” he said. On top of this, Gatchalian said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Data Privacy Commission should also strictly monitor the data collection. “So I would really advise our fellowmen to be very cautions against downloading applications on their phones. Not everything in the app store are legitimate, while the others can be downloaded directly from their website,” he pointed out.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian (Senate PRIB Photo)
Gatchalian said his contacts in the financial technology business told him that many of these lending applications can track a mobile phone users’ day-to-day activities. “These applications that users download are so sophisticated that it's scary. For example, the app can actually track down where you are going, where you buy your clothes, where you work. As they said, these apps can track when a person goes to work Mondays to Fridays and what office that person goes to,” Gatchalian said in Filipino in an interview on Radio DZBB. “It can also have an idea if a person is a gambler if it can track him going to a casino Mondays to Fridays, even up until night. They create a profile out of his activity so they would know what type of person they would offer a loan,” he said. This actual profiling, he said, is illegal and an outright violation of the Data Privacy Act. “Many people may think that the app is harmless, but if they continue to press the button ‘allow’ continuously, they are unaware that their mobile phones are now being tracked--including their contacts, pictures—by these lending applications,” he said. “There are two things we can do: Let’s not go into these apps; second, let’s check these lending apps if they are registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),” added the senator, who recently filed a resolution calling for a Senate probe into the existence of lending applications that have been harassing many people. Gatchalian said the BSP, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), must be proactive in monitoring and preventing these lending applications from further victimizing people. “These lending apps are getting very sophisticated. I think they masquerade as a finance application in the Apple store but when you download it, its actually a lending app,” he said. “So the BSP, and the SEC, must be proactive in detecting these kind of activities that are illegal and they should report it immediately to the Apple store or Play store and have these deleted,” he said. On top of this, Gatchalian said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Data Privacy Commission should also strictly monitor the data collection. “So I would really advise our fellowmen to be very cautions against downloading applications on their phones. Not everything in the app store are legitimate, while the others can be downloaded directly from their website,” he pointed out.