67 ONLINE LENDERS SUMMONED FOR SHAMING CLIENTS
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has summoned 67 online lenders for debt shaming their clients, choosing to reach out to them through newspaper publications after the agency could not pin down their physical addresses.
The NPC published on Friday an order for summary hearing directed at a long list of apps, whose agents or representatives used the personal information of their clients “to harass, threaten or coerce them to settle their loans,” the order read.
The order was published in newspapers of general circulation after the NPC could not send individual notices to the companies involved. They, including their respective boards of directors, were ordered to appear for a summary hearing at the PICC Complex along Roxas Boulevard in Manila on Oct. 15.
At this point, it is not clear how many companies operated the 67 apps since it is possible that one company would operate several platforms. The order only listed the names of the mobile apps.
This is also separate from the three online lending companies that NPC had charged for similar violations last month.
“Based on reports from our complaints and investigation division, the published list are those apps whose corporate names, physical addresses or email addresses cannot be identified for purposes of service of orders or notices,” said Leandro Aguirre, deputy commissioner at NPC.
This marks another development in an ongoing pursuit against companies who use the personal information of their clients to threaten them to settle their debts, a tactic that involves public shaming at the cost of losing the borrower’s reputation to friends, family and co-workers over an unpaid debt as small as P1,000.
“Failure to appear or comply with this order may warrant the issuance of a temporary ban on the processing of personal data and the submission of the complaints for decision based on individual evidence,” the order read.
The list of apps included Cashalo, but the NPC could neither confirm nor deny if this is the same mobile platform of Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Hong Kongbased Oriente.
Last month, NPC’S fact-finding team filed charges against three online lending companies that accounted for 61 percent of the 921 complaints received by NPC since July last year.
These companies were Fynamics Lending Inc., which operates the Pon
dopeso app; Unipeso Lending Co., which operates the Cashlending app, and Fcash Global Lending Inc., operator of Fast Cash app.
The three companies and their directors were given 10 days last month to respond to the charges filed against them, including noncompliance with the legal requirements of processing personal data as well as malicious and unauthorized disclosure.
Aguirre told reporters on Thursday that Fynamics had asked for more time while the two others have filed motions to dismiss the charges.
He deferred from discussing the merits of the responses, which would be judged by the agency’s commissioner and deputy commissioners, including himself. He, however, said that they hoped to resolve the case before the year ends.