The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the central government and the Reserve Bank of India on whether any regulatory measures have been put in place to secure data collected during UPI payments through e-commerce and social media apps like Amazon, Google Pay, Facebook and WhatsApp
The court was hearing a plea that argued that there was no such protection in place at present. The plea argued that Amazon, Google and Facebook were allowed to start UPI payments banks without following rules that would ensure that data of Indian users is stored in India.
The petition also alleges that the RBI “deliberately” diluted the data protection laws in 2018 to give relief to these apps that had failed to comply with the rules. It said two years on, these apps are still to comply.
The notices have been issued to the RBI, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Amazon pay, Amazon Inc, Google Pay, Google Inc, WhatsApp, Facebook, CERT-IN, the Union home ministry, the Union finance ministry and the Union information technology ministry.
The petition was filed by Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam who has sought a direction to the RBI to frame necessary regulations to ensure that data collected on UPI platforms is not “exploited” or used in any manner other than for processing payments.
In his plea, Viswam, the Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, has sought a direction to the RBI and the NPCI to ensure that data collected on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms is not shared with their parent company or any other third party under any circumstances.
The MP has said that he has filed the plea “for the protection of fundamental right to privacy of millions of Indian citizens” who are using UPI.
The petition has also called for bar on the launch of WhatsApp Pay unless it complies with regulations.
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