<![CDATA[The growing use of online lending services raises concerns about borrowers’ legal rights, personal data protection, and digital security. This community service activity evaluated an online educational webinar on online lending law and personal data protection to assess changes in participants’ knowledge and identify their information needs. The webinar was conducted on 16 October 2026 via Zoom in collaboration with legal and technology practitioners. Knowledge was assessed using a 12-item true-or-false questionnaire with a “don’t know” response option. Each correct answer received one point, resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 12. After data screening and deduplication, 25 unique post-test records remained, while 18 participants had matched pre-test and post-test responses for the paired analysis. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed no statistically significant difference in overall knowledge scores before and after the webinar (W = 42, p = 0.805). The proportion of correct responses remained unchanged at 72.7% in both assessments, with a mean score of 8.72 out of 12. Item-level results showed a 22.2-percentage-point increase in correct responses concerning the legal status of applications available in app stores. However, correct responses regarding threats or public shaming during debt collection decreased by 22.2 percentage points. Questions raised during the discussion highlighted information needs related to third-party debt collectors, AI-manipulated selfies and identity misuse, phishing links, application permissions, and device verification. These findings suggest that a single webinar may not be sufficient to produce measurable short-term improvements in overall knowledge. Future educational initiatives should incorporate practical digital security demonstrations, clearer guidance on legal complaint procedures, and follow-up assessments to evaluate knowledge retention.]]>
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