NEWS: Plea in SC Seeking Protection from Misuse of Data Collected on UPI Platforms

By Legal Wires 4 Minutes Read

Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswas of the CPI has moved before Supreme Court seeking directions to ensure that the data of Indian citizens collected on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms are not misused by corporations.

The petitioner seeks the court to direct RBI to formulate regulations to ensure that this data is not misused and the right to privacy of citizens is not violated.

The petition refers to the giant corporation such as Whatsapp, Amazon, and Google to have a history of abusing their dominant position and compromising the data collected on their platforms, it prays to RBI and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) ensure that the data collected by these entities for the purpose of facilitating payments are not shared with their parent companies or any other third parties.

Given that these entities are based in the US, data of Indians face the risk of being taken abroad in the absence of adequate scrutiny and checks put in place. Moreover, the petition contends that RBI and NPCI have permitted the operation of these payments services “contrary to public interest” instead of actively looking into allegations of misuse of data leveled against these corporations by the US Congress.
The plea reads:

“These allegations become particularly worrisome at a time when India has banned a host of Chinese Applications on the ground that those Applications were or could be used for data theft, and could be portals for several security breaches.”

The RBI and NPCI have failed to look in to these companies before allowing them to operate on UPI, the Petitioner contends that RBI had issued certain FAQ regarding to a circular from April 2018 in order to help these corporations to comply with the certain necessary conditions for the operation of UPI.

These FAQs have been challenged as being ultra-vires the original circular itself. Petitioner argues that all participants ought to follow the deadline that was set out in the April 2018 circular in letter and spirit.

It pointed out that the Whatsapp admitted its position as on 5^th June this year that it has yet to comply with data localization norms and yet RBI and NPCI did not take any actions against this company.

The petitioner has also prayed before the Court that the RBI and NPCI be directed to not allow Whatsapp to roll out its payment service in full scale till all the requirements and norms are complied with.

Legal Wires

Team @LegalWires