Supreme Court seeks WhatsApp response on plea seeking non-sharing of UPI data

The Supreme Court on Monday asked WhatsApp to file its response on a plea seeking a direction to the NPCI and the RBI 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 circumstancesSenior advocate Krishna Venugopal appearing for petitioner Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde that in the previous hearing the court had asked the company if Israeli sypware Pegasus has breached their systemsVenugopal cited that it was wrongly stated this issue was not pleaded in the petition and added that till date Facebook and WhatsApp have not filed a counteraffidavit in the matterHe said that his clients petition has been pending for months and the top court should ask Facebook and WhatsApp to file a counteraffidavitThe bench also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian noted that if WhatsApp does not file the reply then the averment made by the petitioner will be taken as acceptedSeveral interlocutory applications have been filed in the plea These applications seek direction to frame regulation to ensure that data collected on UPI platforms is not exploitedSenior advocate Arvind Datar representing WhatsApp India contended before the court that no formal notice has been issued to it in the plea for impleadment in the matterSenior advocate V Giri representing the RBI submitted that the Central bank has already filed its reply in the matter Senior advocate Kapil Sibal also appearing for WhatsApp submitted that his client has received all necessary permissionsThe top court observed that the plea should be tagged with similar plea pending and asked the Centre to file an affidavit in the issue connected with spyware Concluding the hearing in the matter the bench told WhatsApp counsel that pleas challenging its new privacy policy are pending before the courtThe bench has scheduled the matter for further hearing after four weeksThe Reserve Bank of India has told the Supreme Court that the National Payment Corporation of India NPCI allowed WhatsApp to go live on UPI only after ensuring it was fully compliant with its circularThe central bank also stressed the onus is on the NPCI to respond on the status of compliance of WhatsApp Google and Amazon with the system rulesprocedural guidelines governing the Unified Payments Interface UPIIn an affidavit seeking dismissal of Viswams plea the RBI said NPCI is the system provider of UPI and therefore comes under the regulatory radar of the RBI Since it was NPCI that allowed Amazon Google and WhatsApp to operate under UPI the responsibility to ensure that these entities comply with all the rulesregulations guidelines governing UPI lies with the NPCIViswam in the plea sought protection of data of transactions made over UPI He contended that the RBI and the NPCI instead of fulfilling their statutory obligations are compromising the interest of Indian users by allowing the noncompliant foreign entities to operate its payment services in India The plea seeks response from the RBI and the NPCI to ensure that the data of Indian citizens collected on UPI platforms was not misused by WhatsApp Google and AmazonThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever