ADIF urges authorities to ask WhatsApp to rollback amendments in its privacy policy

Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation (ADIF), a newly formed industry association of Indian startups, has alleged that WhatsApp's recent privacy policy update is a looming threat to payments and financial data of users and has sought greater oversight from authorities as per a letter addressed to Prime Minister's Office, Reserve Bank of India and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)

The policy could lead to increased data sharing between WhatsApp and parent entity Facebook despite the instant messaging platform's position that the update applies only to WhatsApp chat. the letter stated that WhatsApp was not being forthright with its intentions with respect to a provision in the WhatsApp Payment policy. The provision states, "a UPI transaction on WhatsApp Pay utilises Facebook infrastructure and that in certain cases, a user's limited data may be shared to help provide customer support to the user or keep payments safe and secure."

The letter urges Government intervention stating that privacy of 40 crore Indians is at stake and Indian Government must consider to conduct a CERT-IN audit of WhatsApp servers to ensure that payments data is stored only in India and appropriate meausres are applied to protect the data, according to a media report.

The association alleges that WhatsApp's update contravenes Unified Payments Interface's procedural guidelines, as it asks users to comply with its amended privacy policy without their explicit consent. The new policy also violates RBI's localisation mandate, MeitY's mandate on data disclosure of sensitive information to a third party, and a provision in the IT Act 2000 for using an individuals personal information without user consent.

ADIF suggested that authorities should ask WhatsApp to immediately and permanently roll back amendments in its privacy policy in India.