Concerns include data vulnerabilities and illegal lending
PUBLISHED: 21 Jan 2025 at 14:07
Phone users accompanied by representatives of the Thailand Consumers Council (TCC ) on Tuesday filed a complaint with police about alleged crimes through pre-installed product applications in their Oppo and Realme devices.
The party, which included about 40 smartphone users, went to the Central Investigation Bureau to file their problem with consumer security officers.
Patarakorn Teepboonrat, TCC’s assistant head for client rights security, said the plaintiffs were among the 192 mobile users who have filed complaints with the committee about specific data breaches and improper lending.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society just said payment apps were pre-installed in about 4 million Oppo and Realme devices.
Through for pre-installed payment apps, mobile people had already borrowed about 15 million ringgit in full, Mr Patarakorn said.
He said that debt paid instalments to records of Thai-registered juristic individuals connected with unusual systems.
TCC attorney Jina Yam-uam said the government was guiding complainants to report school action criminal and civil lawsuits against all parties concerned, including app owners in other countries and their Thai nominees. The government planned to get compensation for all personal accusers, he said.
Loan applications were both pre-installed on telephones or quickly installed when their operating systems were updated, the prosecutor said. He urged the producers of Oppo and Realme apps to reveal the loan application users to prove the producers ’ ignorance.
Pornwut Pipatanadetsak, TCC head for policy and innovation, said pre-installation of loan apps breached consumer rights because it consumed phone capacity without the phone user’s consent, and users could not uninstall such apps, which had access to their personal data.
Patipol Putthachuchart, a 31-year-old complainant, said he bought an Oppo phone and found pre-installed Fineasy and another loan app.
He said that after software updates, at least 10 other apps were automatically installed and they appeared to be gambling apps.
The consumer council has called on Chinese smartphone brands Oppo and its subsidiary Realme to explain reports from smartphone users that loan offering apps pre-installed on some of their mobile phone models could not be uninstalled and were capable of sending loan invitations and accessing users ‘ personal data, including contacts lists and phone numbers.