NPC summons 67 more online lenders

The NPC received complaints from the 67 online lending apps. #lendingapps #NPCsummon

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Friday issued summons to 67 unlisted operators of online lending applications that were the subject of data privacy complaints and having undetectable identities and business addresses.

In an Order for Summary Hearing published in three newspapers of general circulation, the NPC is compelling the board of directors behind the lending apps to appear before the Commission to attend a summary hearing, submit their response and present their defense.

The Order was specifically addressed to operators of the following online apps:

Akulaku, Batis Loan, Cash bus, Cash flyer, Cash loan, Cash moto, Cash to go, Cash warm, Cashafin and Cashaku;

Cashalo, Cashaso, Cashmoney loan, Cashope, Cashwhale, Crazy Loan, Credit coin, Credit peso, Crutchpil and First lending;

Flash cash, Happy cash, Hello papaya, JK Quick Cash Lending, Kwago, Lalapeso (Mintwagon Lending Corp), Lending cash, Light credit, Loan champ and Loan motto;

Loan wallet, Mabilis cash, Mango cash, Mango loan, Mcmpire, Megaloan, MF cash (Microdot Lending Corporation), Moola lending, One cash and Online loans Pilipinas;

Pautang peso, Pera advance, Pera express, Pera lending, Pera Pocket (Rainbow Cash), Pera4u, Peso legend, Peso lending, Peso now and Peso online;

Peso Q, Peso to Go, Peso tree, Peso wallet, Peso.ph, Peso2go, Pesomine, Pesos ph, Pesos.ph and Pinoy cash; and

Pinoy peso, Pondo pocket, QCash, Sell loan, Super cash, Super peso and Utang pesos.

Failure to comply with the order could potentially result to a ban on their processing of personal data and the elevation of the complaints to the Commission en banc for decision, the NPC said.

“Our investigation team is committed in attending to all the complaints filed against online lending apps. However, to date, only the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the developers behind the 67 apps are identifiable. They have no known company name and business address, nor has anyone appeared before the Commission to represent them,” according to NPC.

“Our investigators are aware that some of these online lending apps are just existing in the cloud. With the defendants being unknown, summons by publication is needed in order to comply with the rules on acquiring jurisdiction and the principle of due process,” said Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro.

Previously, three online lending companies, Fast Cash Global Lending, Inc., Unipeso Lending Company, Inc., and Fynamics Lending Inc., have been ordered to explain before the Commission the allegations contained in NPC’s fact-finding reports.

In the complaints received by the NPC, online lenders allegedly accessed and used mobile phonebooks of the victims without their consent. Using the phonebook data, the online lenders allegedly informed people in the contact list that they were named as co-makers or character references by borrowers.

In some reports, these contacts were even asked to settle the loan.

Agents or representatives of lending apps also posted borrowers’ personal and sensitive personal information on social media sites.