The Supreme Court asks for responses from technology companies Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Amazon, on a plea seeking directions to ensure that data collected on Unified Payments Interface, UPI platforms are not shared with their parent company or any other third party under any circumstances, on Monday.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian hearing the filed plea by Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam said that if WhatsApp does not file its reply, then the averment made in the writ petition will be taken as accepted. In October last year, the court had issued a notice to the companies and the Centre. SC then issued formal notices to the four companies i.e. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, and said that if they fail to reply, the allegation made in the plea will be accepted, PTI reported. Kapil Sibal, also appearing for WhatsApp, said 'WhatsApp Pay' has received all necessary permission. In December last year, in RBI's affidavit, it was told that the top court that it has no responsibility to conduct “audit of members of UPI ecosystem” and responsibility to ensure that private firms like Google and WhatsApp comply with norms lies with National Payments Corporation of India.

In his petition, Viswam had submitted that the RBI and NPCI should ensure that data collected by these companies for the purpose of facilitating payments are not shared with their parent companies or any other third parties. It has further sought that 'WhatsApp Pay' in India will not be accepted without fulfilling all legal compliances to the satisfaction of the court regarding requisite regulatory compliances.

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