The new report of the British Privacy International states that some banks and insurance companies are secretly viewing their customers smart phones without a permission. These companies are fetching data of their customers’ social media actions, phone calls and messages. This kind of data is then used when the company is giving the customer a credit rating.
The report is based on two different studies which were reviewing several Indian and Kenyan loan companies and their data acquisition methods. This kind of data acquisition is related to “fintech” which is a new method of using financial technology. The governments are not controlling this kind of data mining and don’t understand a thing about this kind of activity.
In other words, companies can change your credit rating by viewing for example your Facebook posts and activity.
Fintech methods are mostly used in Brasil, India, China, South-Africa and Mexico where the laws about protection of privacy are not up to date when compared to other countries.