The Nigeria Data Protection Commission has said it is investigating over 400 cases of privacy breaches involving online loan apps.

Cases of data privacy breaches have become prevalent in recent times due to the proliferation of digital lending platforms.

The commission made this known in its 2023 Annual Report made available to The PUNCH on Thursday.

It noted that its ongoing investigations have revealed that “loan apps are overly intrusive.”

NDPC is also seeking a ban or restriction on mobile numbers found to have been used by lenders to breach the privacy of their customers.

“They generally violate the principles of Data Protection and Privacy because they have access to contacts, pictures, messages, etc. of data subjects,” the commission stated.

This indicated that despite an April 2023 policy introduced by Google banning loan apps from accessing photos and contacts of users, the practice has continued.

Acknowledging that privacy breaches by loan apps are a systemic problem, the commission said it is also adopting a systemic solution by working with other regulators and third-party platforms being used by the lenders.

A user of a loan app, Haruna Michael, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, said that one of the digital lenders used his photos and tagged him as a fleeing criminal because he defaulted in paying the loan he received within the stipulated time.

He said his contacts were reached and he was reported as a fraudster.

“Over 400 cases of privacy breaches involving shadowy loan sharks are being addressed at the systemic level.

“The commission has now drafted the Nigeria Data Protection Act-General Application and Implementation Directive which addresses the abetment of data breaches, the need for data ethics and privacy by design and by default among others.

“Under abetment, the third-party platforms through which data privacy breaches take place will now be required to deny access to those who use their platforms for privacy breaches.

[i]“Organisations, particularly communication networks should be willing to restrict or ban telephone lines that are implicated in privacy violations,” the commission said.[/i]

The NDPC added that it is also collaborating with regulators under the Joint Enforcement and Regulatory Taskforce to sanitise the digital lending space.

It noted that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission now requires lending companies to obtain data protection clearance from NDPC before operation.

Source: https://punchng.com/Commission-probes-400-cases-of-privacy-breach-in-online-loan-apps

As fast as possible

My first ever FTC since 2019.
Is there any gain in it? If yes @seun & co please kindly do the needful. Thank you

Hmmmm

Ok

adenigga:

Source: https://punchng.com/Commission-probes-400-cases-of-privacy-breach-in-online-loan-apps

First close

Most of them are criminals

Do people still take money from them? I don't even know they still exist. Their business must have gone down seriously.

Oni gbeses (debtors) will be happy in this development.

My neighbor was label rapist and pedophilic old idiot and later a kidnapper

They already have your pictures from KYC selfie, they even have access to your private messages, and this is wrong

Nice

BlackyOne:
They already have your pictures from KYC selfie, they even have access to your private messages, and this is wrong

Access to one's personal messages?

jj

Same old story.


They are the same people that own those apps that's why they can not run after but they can run after yahoo boys

Dagger111:



Access to one's personal messages?

Yes, they have access to your personal messages (SMS)

I can't say i blame them in fact if I had my way I would adopt the same measure to recover my money from friends and relatives

Why did they even sack Gbenga Irukera?

I thought he was doing a good job

Nigerian borrowers need iron hand, if not you will loose your money!

Obyangel:
Oni gbeses (debtors) will be happy in this development.

My neighbor was label rapist and pedophilic old idiot and later a kidnapper

Tell that your neighbor to go and clear his debt

Cool

About time. Those guys are basically loan sharks. I heard a sad story about one loan app posting the picture of a young lady saying she sleeps with dogs. Because she couldn't pay back 30,000.

Long overdue

sigh

They will rebrand their logo, design and name then come back on play store.

FG did some thing about restrictions on "permission" to view contact.

The loan apps came back with "permission" to view "call logs" + "permission" to view "messages".
Of course, contact info can be found in call logs and messages.

omoh.........those people show me shege,bt them later begin beg me to pay any amount i get..


i jst tell them to wait till i bcum the governor of my state

Illegal1:
omoh.........those people show me shege,bt them later begin beg me to pay any amount i get..


i jst tell them to wait till ibcum the governor of my state

Them don jam their match

I wanted to borrow 6k from fairemoney but the motherfuckers credited me 60k.


I pity their recovery method.

Abeg check them i don suffer for this people hand