People are very cynical about this but I honestly don't think there's in principle anything wrong with using such data to establish credit-worthiness, because as the article points out many people do not have a stable financial history and this creates a negative cycle.
Fact of the matter is if people want access to credit the creditor has a legitimate interest in making an informed decision about whether the individual is reliable to set a correct rate. There is no way around this.
The two other alternatives are, we don't give someone access to credit, or we hand out credit without any sort of metrics. The first one doesn't help anyone, the second one doesn't make any financial sense.
Consumer data (the article also mentions online shopping history, which makes more sense than 'browser history'), in contrast to institutional banking data is ubiquitous even in poor countries because people now have wide access to phones and services. It would enable a lot of people to get access to credit.
Fact of the matter is if people want access to credit the creditor has a legitimate interest in making an informed decision about whether the individual is reliable to set a correct rate. There is no way around this.
The two other alternatives are, we don't give someone access to credit, or we hand out credit without any sort of metrics. The first one doesn't help anyone, the second one doesn't make any financial sense.
Consumer data (the article also mentions online shopping history, which makes more sense than 'browser history'), in contrast to institutional banking data is ubiquitous even in poor countries because people now have wide access to phones and services. It would enable a lot of people to get access to credit.