The National Privacy Commission (NPC) and the finance sector have joined hands in condemning the practice of some online lending platforms of harvesting excessive information of their customers..
In a joint press statement, NPC, Fintech Alliance.PH, Philippine Finance Association, and the non-bank financing sector have reiterated their appeal to non-compliant operators of online lending apps to refrain from exploiting borrowers by using the borrowers’ personal data to shame and coerce them into paying their loans through unauthorized and unfair use of their personal data.
The groups said saving and storing their clients’ contact list and photo gallery ostensibly to evaluate their creditworthiness is unnecessary because an applicant’s creditworthiness may be determined through other lawful and reasonable means.
“We remind concerned digital lending players to strictly adhere to the Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics as well as the Code of Collection Standards and Ethics that the FinTech Alliance.ph and the Philippine Finance Association have established and standardized in the industry to ensure strict compliance while promoting consumer protection,” they said.
Entities are obligated to comply with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and related laws when processing the personal data of data subjects.
NPC said Circular 20-01 provides guidelines for processing personal data for loan-related transactions.
“We call on these non-compliant lending entities to use lawful and reasonable methods in evaluating loan applicants’ creditworthiness as well as in debt collection practices by upholding data subject rights without resorting to unfair debt collection practices and harassment of borrowers such as the use of insults or profane language, violent threats or false representation and unnecessarily exposing their borrowers’ personal data to unauthorized persons,” the statement said.
