WhatsApp Sharing Partial Payment Transaction Data With Facebook

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, has stated that it shares partial payment service data with its parent company Facebook. Moving forward, it also claimed that the social media behemoth does not employ the data for commercial reasons.

“Facebook does not employ payment data of WhatsApp for commercial reasons, it simply assists pass the required payment data to the NPCI and bank partner. In some situations, we might share partial data to keep payments secure & safe or assist offer customer support to you,” WhatsApp claimed on its site.

WhatsApp is running its payment service’s beta version in India. The Ministry of Electronics and IT, as per government sources, has written to NPCI (National Payment Corporation of India) to confirm fulfillment around WhatsApp payment and verify if WhatsApp is sharing information with Facebook, its parent company.

On its site WhatsApp claimed that when a consumer conducts a payment, the mobile messaging app produces the required link between the recipient and sender of the payment, employing Facebook infrastructure. “We pass the data of the transaction to the bank associate, which is dubbed as a payment service provider (PSP), and to NPCI so that they can facilitate the transaction of funds between the receiver’s and sender’s bank accounts,” claimed the website.

When made a contact, WhatsApp spokesperson claimed, “Facebook operates Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction information as a service supplier for WhatsApp, and does not employ data of WhatsApp payments transaction for commercial reasons.”

On a related note, the IT ministry has shown worries related data security of Facebook consumers in India after the data leak to Cambridge Analytica from its platform. On June 7, 2018, the ministry again asked Facebook asking for an explanation on reports that it shared data of consumers with mobile device manufacturers, as per the industry sources as well as industry insiders.