Google has enforced stringent measures against more than 3,500 personal loan apps in 2022, including removing them from the Play Store, as the tech giant intensifies its crackdown on unregistered and fraudulent lenders. The company did not reveal the specific number of apps removed during the year. However, in August 2022, Google reported that it had blocked 2,000 personal loan providers from its app marketplace in India between January and July 2022.
Google’s enforcement actions on the Play Store include app rejection, suspension, restricting discoverability, limiting regional availability, and even terminating developer accounts. The proliferation of digital lending by unregistered and fraudulent apps has raised significant concerns for the government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED). The issue dates back to 2020 when high-handed loan recovery methods by these apps pushed many unsuspecting customers to suicide.
“In 2021, Google revised its Play Store developer program policy for financial services apps, mandating additional requirements for personal loan apps in the country,” a company spokesperson said. These requirements included a declaration form confirming RBI licensure or the provision of a platform for licensed money lenders. Last year, Google introduced further requirements for developers facilitating personal loans on behalf of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and banks, such as prominently disclosing partner names and official agent status.
Google recently updated its personal loans policy to restrict apps that provide or facilitate personal loans from accessing sensitive consumer data, such as contacts, location, photos, videos, files, or call logs. This policy will be effective from May 31, 2023. “We continue to uplevel our efforts in this area by regularly updating our policies and review processes,” the spokesperson added.
Globally, Google prevented 1.43 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play in 2022, partly due to new security features, policy enhancements, machine learning systems, and app review processes. Additionally, the company banned 173,000 bad accounts and prevented over $2 billion in fraudulent and abusive transactions during the year.
Google also stopped about 500,000 submitted apps from unnecessarily accessing sensitive permissions over the past three years. “Sensitive permissions are those that allow apps to access users’ personal information, such as contacts, location, camera, microphone, SMS, and call logs,” the spokesperson explained.
Google Play Protect is a security feature built into Android devices that scans apps for malicious behavior and alerts users about potentially harmful apps.
