In contrast to the other comments here, this isn't a machine learning problem. Also, not a lending problem. The big issue is privacy. As I was reading the ar

In contrast to the other comments here, this isn't a machine learning problem. Also, not a lending problem. The big issue is privacy. As I was reading the article, everything seemed fine until I read the lending companies were stealing private info. Calling contacts, threatening violence with location tracking. If lenders want to use battery life and typing speed as as credit indicator, that's up to them. (By the way, the NY Times probably has that wrong. Battery life and typing is likely used for for user tracking/fingerprinting. Imagine a bot borrowing small amounts 10,000 times pretending to be 10,000 different people. Lender's trying to combat something like that.) Over-borrowing is a user error. Mr. Bai needs to take some responsibility. (I fully realize people blame the financial institutions, including for the credit crisis in US in 2008... we can agree to disagree on that one). Also, there are ways to protect over-borrowers, such as bankruptcy laws and statue of limitations. Bankruptcy laws can allow them to start over. Statue of limitations can put an end to the credit collector hounding. When it comes to privacy, this article will be an example I'll be mentioning to people when they say "I don't mind the surveillance, I have nothing to hide. I'm not breaking any laws".