CONCERNS OVER VIOLATING  PRIVACY NORMS BY GOOGLE PAY

Google India in 2017 launched Tez which is a mobile payment service and this gained a lot of users in Indian. Later Google rebranded its payment application Google Tez into Google Pay.  Google Pay is an application that provides UPI services to the public acting as a 3rd party. Considering privacy concerns a plea has been made in Delhi High Court against Google Pay for violating guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding data localization, sharing norms, and storage.  The plea Is expecting Google India Digital Services Pvt. Ltd to give an undertaking to not store any data on the app and not share any information with another 3rd party, including its subsidiary or holding company. The petition is also seeking that the court shall impose a penalty on the respondent for all the violations it has committed. And this petition’s 2nd respondent is National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is a payment regulator and has the power to grant permissions for  Payment Service Providers (PSPs). The petition seeks that the authorization of NPCI shall be revoked on account of risking the data of its consumer’s payments. The petition also claims that the NPCI was not diligent and did not conduct audits at regular intervals when there were alarming irregularities in compliance of various laws applicable. And this data is being shared openly with its sister entities and also 3rd parties and is monetizing the data in question. The location data of the customer is asked while using their services and gives the security reason. But in reality, this data is being monetized by the company. This data is used for various promotions and advertisements through which the company gains revenue. 

India is still primitive to understand the importance of privacy in this digital era. And the governments need to be proactive to ensure that personal information is safe and is not being used by any corporation for their revenue. And the government shall take necessary educational programs which aim at educating the people about the importance of their personal information and its privacy.