What apps are you giving access to your personal data?

Hey'all,

A friend told me a story that got me somewhat angry with myself for using a smartphone, it's not something new, but I just dislike the lack of privacy with these gadgets nowadays. So, she’s been getting personal loan through mobile apps, and she had been very faithful in paying the loans as well. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, she applied for a loan and she was denied one due to lacking credentials to be given a loan. Upon inquiry from a different company, she was informed that giving access to some of the apps also means they get to see your loan trends and how you spend your money and can even access your text message. I don’t know how true this actually is, but it creeped me out, then I realized I have been giving access to so many other apps and to make things worse, I give them access to my pictures and other media as well. I am so not happy about that. 

On another note, as we continued chatting, she said a good number of Tanzanians apply for personal and business loan via apps and mobile money. For a greater part, it has been a good idea that these loan opportunities exist for simplicity of life and it reaches more customers compared to physically visiting microfinance institutions. But I wonder though, how do they get their money back? Especially since they don’t request for loan security. Do they know how to track these people down? How successful are these businesses? I would hope they are able to recover their funds as easily as they make their loans accessible to people.