[kictanet] Fintech and Privacy (Kenya & India situation)

[Mose Karanja]

The contracts are made in such a manner that even users repay the loans and quit, their data will still be retained and be monitized:

A significant issue with the fintech companies in Kenya, is that they keep access to the data. They keep the data—and, in some cases analyse it, even if the user has stopped being a customer of theirs, and has deleted their app. Branch is explicit that it keeps the data even after a user uninstalls the app, and admits it is possibly doing further analysis on it, “we have that right.”147 Tala encourages people, even if they have been rejected for a loan, to keep the app; if they do delete it, Tala retains their data. This is so that, if the customer returns later, they can reinstall the app, go through some simple KYC checks, and be able to borrow again148. M-Kopa, on the other hand, continues to collect data from the device even after the loan has been repaid149.


 -Moses

> On 30 Nov 2017, at 07:44, Admin CampusCiti <info at campusciti.com> wrote:
> 
> Moses
> 
> Thanks for sharing.
> 
> This is very interesting. As a player in the sector I will be reading this report keenly. There’s is room for a player to come into this sector and leverage in the need for privacy without hampering the business model.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Ali Hussein
> Hussein & Associates
> +254 0713 601113
> 
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
> Skype: abu-jomo
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
> Blog: www.alyhussein.com <http://www.alyhussein.com/>
> 
> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 30 Nov 2017, at 3:17 PM, Mose Karanja via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> wrote:
> 
>> Privacy International has published a very important report on fintech and data privacy mainly focusing on Kenya and India.
>> 
>> Fintech: Privacy and Identity in the New Data-intensive Financial Sector shows how everyday habits and data points are used by fintech companies to create profiles and social classes of who can get loan facilities. The amount of surveillance individuals are subjected to for the sake of ‘qualifying’ for a loan is dehumanizing, to say the least. The report features Tala, branch and M-Kopa operations to illustrate the tradeoffs Kenyans are making between Privacy and credit access.
>> 
>> “As the examples in this chapter show, this [calls and text] is amongst the key data sources used for alternative credit scoring in Kenya. This data is being used by lenders like Tala and Branch, without the protections that might be expected for this data. There are also other concerns: the scope of what falls within the concept of financial identity. More and more aspects of people’s lives are falling within the scope of what that is; more is being observed, analysed, and affecting an individual’s financial standing. Along with that increase in scope comes an increase in power, of fintech companies themselves as well as the financial sector more generally.” (pg 32/33)
>> 
>> 
>> Full report: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4312273-Fintech-Report-Nov-2017.html <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4312273-Fintech-Report-Nov-2017.html>
>> 
>> -Moses
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