Paytm, India's Largest Digital Wallet App, Accused Of Handing Over User Data To The Government

Paytm, the largest mobile wallet app in India, has been accused of sharing with the Indian government the personal data of users in a geopolitically sensitive region. From a report: On Friday, the news agency released a video where a reporter went undercover and recorded Paytm's vice president, Ajay Shekhar Sharma, saying how the company had handed over personal data of users in the state of Jammu and Kashmir after Sharma personally received a call from the prime minister's office following incidents of stone-pelting by Kashmiri Muslims against India's armed forces, something that happens frequently in the region. "They told us to give them data, saying maybe some of the stone-pelters are Paytm users," Sharma says in the video. He also talks about his close ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization known for being the ideological front of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Re:

[war4peace]

They just did the needful...

Re:

[infolation]

The stone-pelters purchased their stones using a Digital Wallet App?

That's The Point Of Cashless

[BlueStrat]

That's pretty much the entire reason governments want to go to a cashless system; tracking (and taxation). I'd be more shocked if, in a cashless society, the government did NOT hoover-up user data regardless of any laws or constitutional prohubitions. That kind of data is simply too valuable.

Strat

Cause and effect

[currently_awake]

1-Government sees lots of data that "might" make things easier to control the poor huddled masses. 2-Government can get that data without anyone knowing. 3-Government gets that data (buy, laws, coersion) and gives it to everyone that wants it. Telling government to NOT hoover up social media data or electronic payment data is like telling the fire department to not use fire hydrants.