The digital economy minister has promised quick action to prevent a reoccurrence after a loan company app was found pre-installed on new Oppo and Realme phones.
“Regulations must be issued quickly to control the installation of applications on mobile phones,” Digital Economy and Society Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong said on Monday.
He said a loan app named “Fineasy” was found installed on new Oppo and Realme mobile phones as a system app.
It sent annoying spam messages to phone users who could not remove it, he said.
Mr Prasert said he was checking if the phone distributors received permission from the Bank of Thailand for such financial app pre-installation and how many phones had such system apps.
As phone users could not remove the app themselves, the minister advised them to deactivate it on their phones.
The Thailand Consumers Council complained that the pre-installation violated consumers’ rights as the app was installed without phone users’ consent.
The distributors of Oppo and Realme phones issued their apologies on Sunday.