Over 2000 loan apps removed from Play Store by Google over violation of rules and regulations

Google has banned over 2,000 apps offering instant loan services to customers between January and June this year, in light of these apps violating the company’s Play Store policies.

Speaking at a roundtable on Thursday, Saikat Mitra, senior director, and head of trust and safety at Google Asia-Pacific, said that the bans enforced by the company were put in place after a combination of policy violations, user reports, and collaboration with various law enforcement agencies and policy bodies.

“The bans that we enforce include evaluation of data that we collect ourselves — as well as what we collate from offline, third party sources," Mitra said. This information, he added, could include details such as acts of customer harassment over phone calls made by these instant loan service providers.

The apps that have been banned include services that were specifically catering to the Indian market itself. However, there was no specific focus on cracking down upon apps with links to China.

The apps that have been banned include services that were specifically catering to the Indian market itself. However, there was no specific focus on cracking down upon apps with links to China.

Google’s update on the matter comes after numerous complaints about instant loan apps with fraudulent practices have spammed Indian users.

After an increasing volume of consumer complaints started surfacing regarding instant loan apps on mobile app stores, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took cognizance of the matter — issuing an advisory in December 2020 against using unauthorized instant loan apps.On August 11, the RBI issued a fresh set of guidelines for digital lending firms to follow — including disclosure of all hidden costs, no involvement of third parties in bank transfers of instalment receipts, or disbursals to user accounts, and so on.