WhatsApp to soon launch its payment services: Govt fears over security

WhatsApp is soon going to give strong competition to Google Pay and other payment services in India. The company has about 400 million users in India, and since last year WhatsApp is testing its payment services with about a million users.

WhatsApp Global Head Will Cathcart confirms on Wednesday that company can roll out its payments services in India later this year.

Cathcart said at an event, "We believe that if we get this right, it will accelerate financial inclusion and bring value for people in India's fast-growing digital economy, We can't wait to provide the service more of our users all across India later this year."

WhatsApp confirms last year in October that they have developed a system where all the payment related data will be stored in India as part of compliance with the Reserve Bank of India's policy. This year in the month of May, WhatsApp told the Supreme Court that their trial is likely to be completed by July 2019, but the company will not launch payments services without fully complying with the central bank norms.

The Wednesday announcement raises lots of security concerns for WhatsApp payment services that it might share user data with its group companies Facebook and Instagram. The Government of India raised the issue and asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to look into the matter. Also to ensure user’s data that collected through payment services including Google Pay, WhatsApp etc. should not be shared.

According to WhatsApp the payment service they are planning to roll out is based on UPI (Unified Payments Interface). In an official statement, WhatsApp said, “WhatsApp so far has said that Facebook and its non-WhatsApp subsidiaries do not use WhatsApp UPI transaction data for any commercial purposes.”

Will Cathcart, WhatsApp’s new global head, is meeting officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad this week to discuss the privacy concerns.