‘Google, Apple app stores must not onboard illegal, unsafe apps’, says Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The Centre has issued an advisory to know-how giants Apple and Google asking them to not onboard unsafe functions, Union minister of state for electronics and data know-how (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated on Saturday. This is available in wake of experiences of lending apps harassing their debtors.

“Today both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store have many applications that are used by the Indians. We are tracking one set of applications which are loan applications…We have issued an advisory to both Google and Apple that they must not onboard unsafe applications or illegal applications”, the minister advised news company ANI.

“It is our government’s objective and mission to keep the internet safe and trusted for all ‘digital nagriks’…We intend to have the earliest meeting with the RBI to make sure there is a whitelisting that means to make a norm of only allowing permitted loan applications on these two stores”, he added.

In July this yr, Cupertino-based Apple had stated it eliminated a number of lending apps from its App Store in India following experiences of them harassing and threatening debtors got here into gentle.

Several reviewers had claimed that such mortgage apps provided fast-track loans to the shoppers however levied heavy fees.

As per clients, the lenders usually employed blackmailing techniques to intimidate debtors into repaying the quantity.

A Google spokesperson stated earlier this yr that in 2022, the corporate reviewed and took essential motion that included removing of greater than 3,500 private mortgage apps for violations of the Play coverage necessities. This yr, a brand new Google Play coverage for any monetary product or providers engaged in offering loans or facilitating entry to a mortgage barred entry to images and contacts within the cellphone on which these apps are put in.

Following the implementation of the Personal Loan App Declaration in 2022, Google mandated any apps providing monetary loans to customers, or facilitating the method, to prominently disclose all of the names of the associate banks and non-banking monetary establishments (NBFCs) inside the app description.