Privacy policy analysis of licensed mobile loan applications in Kenya

Abstract

Mobile loan applications users should be informed of the privacy practices of the application before they consent to use the mobile loan application. The study assessed availability and scope of privacy policies in licensed mobile loan applications operating in Kenya using a descriptive study design. All the 32 licensed mobile loan applications were selected for the study. The study findings revealed that only 13 (40.6%) of the mobile applications had privacy policies. Further analysis of the 13 discovered privacy policies reviewed revealed that only 5 (38.4%) of the policies stated the type of personal information collected; 3 (23%) gave the rationale for collecting the stated personal information; 10 (77%) gave information concerning sharing of the collected personal information with third parties and 7 (53.8%) communicated the measures taken to protect the privacy of the collected personal information. The study recommended that mobile loan applications should to improve their privacy policies to comply with the regulatory framework, and also to thus build trust with the users.