Privacy commission summons 67 online lenders

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Friday issued a summons through publication on 67 unlisted operators of online lending applications.

In a statement, the NPC said the 67 online lenders were the "subject of data privacy complaints but whose identities and business addresses elude detection."

The Privacy body published the summons order for summary hearing in three newspapers of general circulation.

The board of directors behind the 67 lending apps were ordered to appear before the NPC to attend a summary hearing, submit their responsive comment, and present their defense.

The summons were addressed to operators of the following online lending apps:
1. Akulaku
2. Batis Loan
3. Cash bus
4. Cash flyer
5. Cash loan
6. Cash moto
7. Cash to go
8. Cash warm
9. Cashafin
10. Cashaku
11. Cashalo
12. Cashaso
13. Cashmoney loan
14. Cashope
15. Cashwhale
16. Crazy Loan
17. Credit coin
18. Credit peso
19. Crutchpil
20. First lending
21. Flash cash
22. Happy cash
23. Hello papaya
24. JK Quick Cash Lending
25. Kwago
26. Lalapeso (Mintwagon Lending Corp)
27. Lending cash
28. Light credit
29. Loan champ
30. Loan motto
31. Loan wallet
32. Mabilis cash
33. Mango cash
34. Mango loan
35. Mcmpire
36. Megaloan
37. MF cash (Microdot Lending Corporation)
38. Moola lending
39. One cash
40. Online loans Pilipinas
41. Pautang peso
42. Pera advance
43. Pera express
44. Pera lending
45. Pera Pocket (Rainbow Cash)
46. Pera4u
47. Peso legend
48. Peso lending
49. Peso now
50. Peso online
51. Peso Q
52. Peso to Go
53. Peso tree
54. Peso wallet
55. Peso.ph
56. Peso2go
57. Pesomine
58. Pesos ph
59. Pesos.ph
60. Pinoy cash
61. Pinoy peso
62. Pondo pocket
63. QCash
64. Sell loan
65. Super cash
66. Super peso
67. Utang pesos

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

“Our investigation team is committed in attending to all the complaints filed against online lending apps," Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro said.

"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. 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,” Liboro said.

Three online lending companies, Fast Cash Global Lending Inc., Unipeso Lending Company Inc., and Fynamics Lending Inc., were earlier ordered to explain before the NPC the allegations contained in the Privacy body's fact-finding reports.

In the complaints received by the NPC, the online lenders allegedly accessed and used victims' mobile phonebooks 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. — John Ted Cordero/DVM, GMA News