How recent snooping incident may affect the launch of WhatsApp Pay

Those waiting for a rollout of WhatsApp Pay in India might have to wait longer, as the government is planning a comprehensive safety audit of the payment platform. The messaging app has been testing its payments service in the country since last year with about a million users.

According to top officials in the finance and IT ministries, a sensitive payments system like the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, should not be on a platform whose security is possibly compromised. RBI officials who deal with fintech also fear that financial data of Indian users may not be safe on WhatsApp Pay. The proposed audit is likely to be conducted jointly by the IT ministry and the RBI.

Systems for digital payment services need to be fool-proof, and the latest breach might not speak well of WhatsApp’s security.

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