How Navi Mutual Fund forces its users to share their contact lists

livemint.com:

Navi’s privacy policy Navi offers a variety of mutual fund schemes, with focus on passive investing. Its index funds are some of the cheapest in India—its equity funds have performed well in recent years. The firm also offers products like cash loans, home loans, and insurance.

According to Navi’s privacy policy terms, when you give permission to your phone contacts, it gets access to names and contact details from your address book. It uses this data to facilitate invitations and assess your phone use. It determines your social network from your phone book for marketing purposes and to identify fraud.

When you give your phone geolocation data, it is used for servicing suitable products. Ravi Saraogi, RIA and co-founder of Samasthiti Advisors, said Navi is collecting this data for the sole purpose of cross-selling other products. He said that MF investors should be given the option of saying no to sharing their phone book, call records, and location details.

Also, this requirement—permissions to access phone records—was introduced for Android users sometime back but was mandated for Apple iOS users only recently. Apple app store guidelines , however, mandate that apps should allow a user to get what they have paid for without performing additional tasks, such as uploading contacts and sharing their location. Both Goel and Hemanth are apple iOS users.