SECURITY RISK TOO’
Paytm says Google Pay violates user privacy
Digbijay.Mishra@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru:21.09.2018
A new battle is being waged in the domestic payments ecosystem. Paytm has written to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), saying that Google Pay’s privacy policy has scope of violating user privacy and potentially risking the security of the country.
In a letter to NPCI boss Dilip Asbe, Paytm said Google Pay shares user data within group companies and thirdparty platforms in India and abroad, which can be risky given that Google Pay is an unregulated payments platform and stores data outside the country.
Paytm had previously complained to the NPCI about WhatsApp, saying the latter was given unfair advantage at the time it entered the peer-to-peer payments business via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Google, however, responded that the company does not use any individual UPI transaction data for monetisation purposes, such as for advertisements, and all its actions are in line with applicable laws. Google Pay operates on UPI and recently completed one year of operations.
UPI is the fastest growing platform for digital payments, and a number of domestic and global players — including Paytm, Flipkart’s PhonePe, Google Pay and WhatsApp — have been fighting for a share of it. UPI witnessed over 300 million transactions in August, registering a growth rate of over 30% from July, when it clocked around 235 million transactions. In September last year, the same stood at just about 30 million.
A Google Pay spokesperson said in an emailed response that the service shares user data as may be required for the purpose of processing transactions or providing Google Pay Services with its authorised partners. “These include participating banks, banks on UPI infrastructure, bill aggregators, merchants on the Google Pay for Business program and with whom the users are transacting and billers such as utility services, etc. Sharing of this information is in accordance with applicable laws and requisite consent obtained from the user and in conformity with standard industry practice,” the spokesperson said.
An email sent to NPCI’s spokesperson had not elicited a response till the time of going to print.
Paytm says Google Pay violates user privacy
Digbijay.Mishra@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru:21.09.2018
A new battle is being waged in the domestic payments ecosystem. Paytm has written to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), saying that Google Pay’s privacy policy has scope of violating user privacy and potentially risking the security of the country.
In a letter to NPCI boss Dilip Asbe, Paytm said Google Pay shares user data within group companies and thirdparty platforms in India and abroad, which can be risky given that Google Pay is an unregulated payments platform and stores data outside the country.
Paytm had previously complained to the NPCI about WhatsApp, saying the latter was given unfair advantage at the time it entered the peer-to-peer payments business via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Google, however, responded that the company does not use any individual UPI transaction data for monetisation purposes, such as for advertisements, and all its actions are in line with applicable laws. Google Pay operates on UPI and recently completed one year of operations.
UPI is the fastest growing platform for digital payments, and a number of domestic and global players — including Paytm, Flipkart’s PhonePe, Google Pay and WhatsApp — have been fighting for a share of it. UPI witnessed over 300 million transactions in August, registering a growth rate of over 30% from July, when it clocked around 235 million transactions. In September last year, the same stood at just about 30 million.
A Google Pay spokesperson said in an emailed response that the service shares user data as may be required for the purpose of processing transactions or providing Google Pay Services with its authorised partners. “These include participating banks, banks on UPI infrastructure, bill aggregators, merchants on the Google Pay for Business program and with whom the users are transacting and billers such as utility services, etc. Sharing of this information is in accordance with applicable laws and requisite consent obtained from the user and in conformity with standard industry practice,” the spokesperson said.
An email sent to NPCI’s spokesperson had not elicited a response till the time of going to print.
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