The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a petition filed by Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam accusing the RBI and the National Payments Corporation of India of ‘compromising’ the sensitive data of Indian users on United Payments Interface (UPI) platforms.
“The RBI and NPCI have permitted the three members of ‘Big Four Tech Giants’, ie, Amazon, Google and Facebook/WhatsApp (Beta phase) to participate in the UPI ecosystem without much scrutiny and in spite of blatant violations of UPI guidelines and RBI regulations,” the petition said.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde issued notice to the RBI, the NPCI and the companies. The petition wants RBI to frame regulations to ensure that users' data on UPI is not exploited or shared by foreign entities with their parent companies or third parties.
Mr. Viswam, represented by senior advocate Shyam Diwan and advocates Sriram Parakkat and Vishnu Shankar, said the “conduct of the RBI and NPCI puts the sensitive financial data of Indian users at huge risks, especially when these entities have been continuously accused of abusing dominance and compromising data, among other things”. The petitioner has also urged the court to direct the RBI and the NPCI to ensure that WhatsApp does not launch “full-scale operations of ‘WhatsApp Pay’ without complying with the requisite regulations.
The petition said the RBI, with a view to secure the data of Indian users, in April 2018, had issued a circular directing system providers to ensure that the entire data relating to payment system operated by them are stored in India. The deadline for compliance was October 15, 2018.
“However, since the systems’ providers, especially WhatsApp and Google Pay, failed to follow the deadline of October 2018. The RBI, in order to help WhatsApp, Google Pay, etc, and in complete disregard to the security of financial data of Indian users toned down the April 2018 circular by issuing FAQs and permitted the processing of all payment transactions abroad,” the petition said.
