PUTRAJAYA, Nov 20 — The Personal Data Protection Department (PDPD) has opened investigation papers on six unlicensed money lending apps that are suspected of misusing personal data.

The six applications are Asialend, Dreamlend, iPayfren, iPinjaman, Helplend4u dan GoCash4u.

PDPD in a statement today said that the investigation papers were opened under Section 5 of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 [Act 709], with the assistance of CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

If found guilty, the six entities (data users) can be fined not more than RM300,000 or jailed not more than two years or both.

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“All such online applications were found to have accessed and copied other information, including personal information unrelated to loans without the borrower’s consent,” the statement read.

Those whose personal data has been misused by such unlicensed online money lending apps are urged to contact the PDPD enforcement division through email at [email protected] or the Personal Data Protection System (daftar.pdp.gov.my) to assist investigations.

PDPD advises Malaysians to be more careful when applying for loans online, especially when giving downloaded apps permission to access information to avoid personal data being misused by irresponsible parties.

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Those who are interested to apply for online loans are advised to check with the Housing and Local Government Ministry, Credit Community Control Division to verify the registration status of the online money lending app, the department said. — Bernama