RA 10173
I. 1. The National Privacy Commission report stated that “the penalties inflicted on borrowers by these online lenders are abusive. The public shaming they carried out, has caused anxiety, depression; some have even lost jobs and feel they became unemployable, that their reputation and future was put in jeopardy.” The operators of these abusive online apps will be charged with criminal cases and may face up to seven years imprisonment and pay penalties in the amount of up to five million pesos. 2. Yes. Money Lending applications violated the data privacy of the borrowers. Public shaming of online lending apps is a violation of data privacy act. An initial investigation conducted by the NPC on three big online lending companies showed that the aforementioned practices is a violation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Among these practices are: a. Accessing the phone numbers of the borrowers’ contact list without their permission; b. Posting wrong information to the public; and c. ...