Technology giant Google has removed over 2,000 loan apps from India Play Store between January and July 2022 for violating terms, misrepresenting information, and questionable offline behaviour, a senior official said on Thursday.
The Big Tech firm is also looking at tightening policies in the coming weeks for greater checks in this space. It is also working with government agencies, media and user referrals, apart from deploying its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, to penalise dubious players on the Play Store, the official said.
Speaking to reporters at the company’s annual ‘Safer with Google’ event Saikat Mitra, senior director and head of trust and safety, Google Asia Pacific region said “We have removed 2,000-plus loan apps from India Play Store from January till now.” He stated that the crackdown was based on leads and inputs received, violation of policy, lack of disclosures, and misinformation.
The loan app problem has ‘peaked’, and may subside given the focus and attention the issue is garnering, he added.
Mitra said that online harm was a ‘global phenomenon’, and that the company is committed to complying with regulations in all jurisdictions it operates in.
He said that the app take-downs were not linked to predatory loans, although this issue has compelled government agencies and the central bank to tighten norms over the past year. Google also said that it does not actively track the geographical location of the blocked apps and could not say if those or their developers are from China.
On concerns around digital platforms not doing enough to curb online harm and pushing back new regulations, Mitra said that Google’s priority is always around user safety.
Mitra also said that the company is in the process of more policy changes that are going to come out in a matter of few weeks. “This will make it more explicit on requirements,” he said, adding that the proposed move will lead to tighter checks.
The loan apps problem, Mitra said varied from market to market. In India, he said it is related to a combination of misrepresentation, non-compliance with policies and regulations, and improper offline or ‘real world’ behaviour of such apps on recovery and other actions.
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“It entails questions like….is the loan app prominently disclosing what people are signing up for, the rates for instance…are you tied-up with approved NBFC or bank…is that bank on blacklist of RBI… it also gets into offline things for which we don’t have visibility but we get inputs from law enforcement agencies,” he said.
On the issue of new regulations and government policies, Mitra said that the company is working closely with the government and industry. “We think, we all are trying to achieve the same goals…which is respecting privacy and security. We feel our policies should actually help us achieve that. As and when regulation comes, we have a dialogue and we ensure that we present our perspective,” he said.