The Center, Google, Amazon, Facebook/Whatsapp have received notices from the Supreme Court, over a petition filed by CPI MP Binoy Viswam seeking data protection of transactions made over Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said, “We will issue notice. Here there is apprehension that the entire regime of payments will commence before the entire regulatory framework is put in place.”
Senior advocate Shyam Divan appearing for Viswam said that RBI issued an order in April 2018 asking these multinational firms to ensure data transacted on these forums is secured in a server within India. This was to be compiled by October 2018. This was not done, Divan said.
He further informed the court that WhatsApp stores data with its parent company Facebook having servers outside India.
The Rajya Sabha MP had on September 10 filed a plea claiming that the three Big Tech companies have been allowed to participate in the payments space without much scrutiny and inspite of blatant violations of UPI guidelines and RBI regulations. Viswam, seeking SC’s intervention, said that the right to privacy of Indian citizens is to be protected from misuse by the “giant corporations for (their) financial ends.”
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