[ccmcarey]

> we collect user's contacts and use them to remind people of their bill if they don't pay

Are you saying you contact the user's contacts to try to get them to pressure the user to pay their bill?

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I read through your TOS and it looks like this is the relevant line:

> In case of default or late payment, GalaxyCard reserves the right to use suitable means to collect dues including electronic and or physical communication to the debtor and the debtor's known contacts

I think this is a digusting practice, and I am not surprised Google is blocking your app. This is nothing like what WhatsApp does - in fact I don't know of any service at all that does this.

[heroic]

I can understand your dislike to the practice, however, this is something common among a lot of online lending businesses for people who are defaulting on purpose, without a reasonable cause. Here are a few examples: Z2P - Get Instant Loans, Borrow Money, Loan App Instant Personal Loan Online-MoneyWOW

[hluska]

I’m sorry but this is still scummy. Good on Google for banning you.

[orev]

In the US, discussing financial issues with anyone other than the people on the account is HIGHLY illegal. There are very strict rules around who you can contact and what you are allowed to say.

[davidajackson]

Legalities aside, so just because other companies have scummy practices makes it okay for you to?

[hncensorsnonpc]

Yeah I am sick of this excuse. I have seen it a lot around privacy issues. People always say things like "everyone including google is doing it so its perfectly ethical to copy them".

[heroic]

Yes. We first contact the user if they don't pay despite calls/emails/push notification/sms for 45 days. Then we warn them for 15 days that their contacts will be asked to remind them of the bill, as per the terms. Finally we contact the contacts.

We do this to prevent having to file legal cases against the users as those can drag on for very long in India and are a pain for both parties

[mkl]

Telling your customers' friends and family about their financial problems seems like a pretty terrible thing to do.

Edit: And doing so in the hope that they shame or pressure your customers is awful. I agree with ccmcarey upthread: This is disgusting. Stop it.

[heroic]

We do understand that some people may have a financial problem. When user's approach us and tell us that they are not paying due to such issues, we are more than happy to accommodate them in every possible way.

One such example of that is that we told our users that we won't be charging them any late fee during the lockdown as we understand they have issues. We did this even before our government came up with such an option.

[hncensorsnonpc]

Such issues? Accommodate them? What are you even saying, you purposefully cause those issues. People should contact you AFTER it happened to ask "please do not contact my contacts" or what?

[pentae]

I suspect that kind of innovation is frowned upon by Google. It's not the same context as WhatsApp at all

[heroic]

Here's what Google is telling us:

Your app is uploading users' [Contact] information to [URL] without a prominent disclosure. Prior to the collection and transmission, it must prominently highlight how the user data will be used, describe the type of data being collected and have the user provide affirmative consent for such use.

[avianlyric]

I think that’s pretty clear. Google are telling you that you must explicitly outline what you’ll do with peoples contacts (i.e. you’ll harass them if the debtor does pay).

Your current tick box doesn’t say that at all. They probably want you have a nice big tick box that says:

“I agree for [company] to harass my phone contacts if I don’t repay”

[boudin]

That might be part of your issue. You are solicitating their friend and familly as well as sharing with them financial information without their consent.

Why such a weird practice and not simply consider repeated failed payment as a form of cancelation?

[Fragoel2]

Public-shaming people is not a socially acceptable solution to this problem