ODPC Looks Into 40 Digital Credit Companies Over Privacy Violations

The Office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) has opened investigations into forty Digital Credit Providers for misusing personal information.

The ODPC stated that it initiated investigations in response to public complaints about personal data privacy.

“The ODPC wishes to notify the public that it is conducting preliminary documentary assessment and audit on 40 Digital Credit Providers (DCPs) whose practices regarding the processing of personal data have been raised to the Data Commissioner as complaints by various members of the public,” it said in a statement.

Among the digital lenders examined are Branch, Tala, Apesa, Asapkash, Cash Sea, Collectplus, Coopesa, Credit Kes, Credit Moja, Deltech Capital Limited,  Direct Cash, and Fairkash.

Others are Flashpesa, Flexi Cash, Hela Credit, Hikash, Ikash Connect, Instakash, Ipesa, Kash  loan,  Kashbean Kashplus, Kashway, Kesloan,LemonKash, Lioncash, M- credit, Metaloan, Mokash, Papkash, Pocket Cash, Premier Credit ltd, Rocket Pesa, Senti, Skypesa, Wakanda Credit, Zash loan, Zenka Digital Limited and Zuri Cash.

The Data Protection regulations 2021 came into effect in February 2022, allowing data subjects to file complaints and notify the Data Commissioner of data breaches.

The ODPC reported on September 30 that it had received 1,030 complaints. The office accepted 555 of these cases, 299 of which involved Digital Lenders, or 54% of all accepted cases.

During the audit process, the indicated DCPs will be required to submit the necessary documentation to this Office by October 18, 2022, failing which they would have violated Section 61 of the Act by failing to cooperate with this office.