WhatsApp had received permission from NPCI to tie up with banks to facilitate financial transactions via Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
BENGALURU: Just before going live with its payments product in India, instant messaging service provider WhatsApp said that they simply use the Facebook payments infrastructure in order to offer UPI payments to Indian consumers and assured its users that Facebook did not store data pertaining to payments and use it for commercial purposes.
In an update to its privacy policy, Whatsapp Payments which has courted controversy around the way it handles payments data in India, clarified that they have limited visibility on the Indian consumer’s banking details and strictly abided by the norms of the Reserve Bank of India and the government of India regarding handling of payments data.
“WhatsApp works with service providers including Facebook. To send payment instructions to PSPs (service providers); maintain your transaction history; provide customer support; improve, support and market payments; and keep our services safe and secure… we share information we collect with service providers including Facebook,” wrote Whatsapp on its online blog seeking to address consumer questions.
It further allayed fears on having access to the UPI pin which is used to authenticate the transaction, saying that UPI pin was encrypted by the software provided by NPCI.
In an early morning release to the Indian press, WhatsApp put out a public statement for the Indian consumers to review the privacy settings of the app before they start using the app for payments
“We'll be updating our WhatsApp payments Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to provide simpler language on how the payments feature operates. It also reflects the addition of payment interoperability features we've added since the beta started. We've worked closely with NPCI, our bank partners, and the Indian government on these details of how our service works. We look forward to expanding WhatsApp payments soon,” it said.
Further to ET’s queries around changes in its privacy policy post the issue over Whatsapp sharing user data with Facebook, their spokesperson confirmed: “How we share data has not changed with this terms and policy update. We have permission from NPCI and our bank partners to use Facebook as a service
WhatsApp which is thought to have more than 250 million active users in India is all set to launch payment services in the country and is currently operating a test function with ICICI Bank. They have been permitted by NPCI to run the beta testing of their payments product till they reach 1 million customers. ET had written last month that the payments offering is getting delayed due to privacy concerns raised by various stakeholders post the Cambridge Analytica incident with Facebook.
