Indian government is concerned that WhatsApp’s payment service might share user data with group companies Facebook & Instagram, compromising the security and privacy of its users, as per ET reports.
The government has asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to look into the matter and ensure that user data collected through payment services such as WhatsApp and Google Pay is not shared, top officials said.
DKODING | Government is concerned that WhatsApp’s payment service might share user data with group companies Facebook & Instagram
NPCI is the agency that operates retail payment and settlement systems in India.
WhatsApp’s proposed payment service is based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a system that enables real-time transfer of funds between bank accounts.
“WhatsApp so far has said that Facebook and its non-WhatsApp subsidiaries do not use WhatsApp UPI transaction data for any commercial purposes,” one official said.
Zuckerberg happy about WhatsApp Pay beta testing
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said beta testing of WhatsApp payments in India had gone better than expected, even as the social media giant awaits regulatory approval for a full fledged rollout in the country.
India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with about 400 million users. The world’s favourite messaging service is in the process of storing payments data in India, as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India last year.
