[olivierduval]

Actually, I think that there's 2 different problems here:

- first is compliance with Google's term. Obviously, you don't say that the USER's contact will be contacted when the USER bill is out of time and the USER doesn't pay... so your USER might not have understood that this will be the case. I think that you should be clearer about the consequences of allowing your app to access the USER contact list.

- second, the morality of the app: obviously, some people in occidental (US / europe) countries might find the app principle awful... because we rely more on Justice than peer-to-peer social pressure. But it's more a cultural difference. If the principle is agreed between the people giving and receiving money... why not ? (I guess that the people giving the money is the one requiring the USER to download the app... Am I right ?)

BTW: what happens if the people receving the money desinstall the app ? Or empty its contact list ? Or has no contact ?

If I would like to trick your system, I would fill my contact list with garbage, get the money, spend it, then let you contact these garbage contact... Or do you require contacts to use your app too (forced "net effect") ?

Anyway: nothing common with WhatsApp

[jamil7]

> If the principle is agreed between the people giving and receiving money... why not ? (I guess that the people giving the money is the one requiring the USER to download the app... Am I right

I think your misunderstanding the model. You borrow money from this company using this app that harvests your contacts without explicitly stating why. If you don't repay the loan this company starts spamming and harassing your contacts forcing them to pressure you into repaying your loan.

[heroic]

We do give a clear label before asking for user's contacts as to why we need your contacts. See here: https://imgur.com/a/gHP8BDR

[robjan]

From the wording it's not at all clear that you plan to message their contacts telling them to remind the customer/victim about their outstanding loan. Furthermore, do you get the consent of the people in their contact list in the first place?

[true_religion]

I am curious. As a thought experiment, how else can having the contacts of your friend and family be use to remind you of your bills, without contacting them to remind you?

Personally I can see no other way to read it.

[hluska]

I’m sorry but their warning really is not very clear. They write:

“I understand that my contacts will be uploaded and saved on GalaxyCard, and that they will be used to calculate my eligibility and remind me of my bills.”

Note the use of ‘remind me of my bills’ at the end of that sentence. If this company truly wanted to be clear, they could have written that:

“I understand that my contacts will be uploaded and saved to GalaxyCard, where they will be used for two major reasons. First, they will be used to verify that I am eligible for this service. Second, if I am late to pay my bills, I understand that GalaxyCard will contact my contacts to tell them that I have not paid my bills.”

That is significantly more clear as it specifically states they will contact your contacts if you are late.

[true_religion]

Or they will contact them to look for you... like every debt collection service in the world. That you aren’t paying your bills, might be inferred by your friends but they aren’t forced to come right out and say you are delinquent from the get go.

[heroic]

- We added a checkbox which reads out everything about how the contacts will be contacted, after Google first asked us. The user is required to check the checkbox before he can even get the permission dialog to give the permission.

- You are right. We are not doing something out the jurisdiction. The contacts notified are the ones who have agreed to be sent "promotional" messages. So we don't spam these people. We are also working on something to make the loans a "group" loan that will make it a requirement for other people to be "fiscally" responsible for your unpaid loan

We run an algorithm which tries to ascertain that the contacts list is not fake/empty. Uninstalling the app would only prevent us from getting new contacts, and ability to notify you of your pending bills via push notification.

The commonality I was referring to is not having a "Checkbox" before uploading contacts as is required by Play Store.

[pchanda]

Reading the reviews of the similar apps OP mentioned, I don't even think the users are aware of the implications.