Data protection: CPI MP Binoy Viswam questions safety of payment services by foreign companies before SC

CPI MP from Rajya Sabha Binoy Viswam on Monday claimed before the Supreme Court payment services allowed through platforms like WhatsApp, Amazon and Google were not safe and secure as data of Indians go abroad without any formal protection in violation of the right to privacy.

Senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal, appearing for the petitioner, also raised before a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde the issue related to 'Pegasus', which he claimed, could hack WhatsApp messenger.

In November 2019, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has reportedly confirmed that Indian journalists and human rights activists have been targets of surveillance by operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Over a dozen activists and journalists, including Anand Teltumbde, Bela Bhatia and Shalini Gera, had said that they were intimated about they being the target of surveillance using 'Pegasus' through WhatsApp. WhatsApp has then sued the Israeli firm NSO over cyberespionage.

On Monday, the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp, about the "serious allegations" which he termed "baseless" and asked the petitioner to file an affidavit in this regard.

Venugopal, for his part, maintained that the Pegasus issue has been reported in newspapers. It was already on affidavit, he claimed.

The court asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to file its response and put the PIL for consideration in the fourth week of January.

In his submissions, Venugopal claimed critical financial data of users of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) were allowed to be accessed by companies abroad and RBI justified it.

"This is a violation of the privacy judgement as my data is being grossly misused since these companies collect this data and use it for advertisement purposes," he said.

He also claimed all the data were being shared with the parent companies in violation of the NPCI guidelines.

He also accused the RBI and others of allowing these companies to go ahead with the payment services without any circular or formal regulation.