Google Removes More Than 2000 Loan Apps On Safety Concerns The big tech firm also said that crackdown was based on leads and inputs received, violation of policy, lack of disclosures and misinformation

Google has removed more than 2000 loan apps from its Android Play Store since January 2022, for violating terms, misrepresenting information and questionable offline behavior, as per company statement.

Speaking at company's annual 'safer with Google' event, Saikat Mitra, senior director and head of trust and safety, Google Asia Pacific region, said that, "Supported by local research and feedback from our stakeholders, we have been updating the Google Play policies associated with personal loan apps in India. The two thousand apps were from India's Play Store. If the app doesn't meet our policy, we are going to act on it."

He also added that, "The crackdown was based on leads and inputs received, violation of policy, lack of disclosures and misinformation. The loan app problem has peaked and may subside given the focus and attention the issue is garnering."

As per reports, the big tech firm is also looking at tightening policies in the coming weeks. It also plans to work with government agencies, media and user referrals, apart from deploying its artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, to penalize fake players on the Play Store.

As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimate, there were more than 1100 such apps available for Indian Android users across 80 application stores. As per RBI, out of these applications, 600 were illegal ad ED said to be investigating over 300 of them.

Speaking at the event, Royal Hansen, vice-president, engineering for privacy, safety and security, at the company said that, "The company would continue to do this in the next context of cybersecurity, privacy and safety as India is a great example of a growing thriving dynamic online ecosystem."