HYDERABAD: Government agencies are unethically sharing private data of their customers to payment apps without their consent, alleged netizens on Thursday. The issue was flagged by independent security researcher Srinivas Kodali who found that PayTM kept a track of his electricity bill, after he paid a month’s bill through the app.
Kodali said, “For using it once to pay electricity bill, the company now knows my every month bill (sic). This data could be used to build credit profiles too. PayTM and electricity distributors are violating consent.”
However, its not just PayTM, but reportedly other payment providers too have access to such information. The Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) under which -- not just PayTM -- but other similar apps work, reportedly allows the access.
One Shankar Anand tweeted, “Not only @Paytm but every wallet provider does this. I get due message/reminder from all the wallets I have used before for paying Electriticy bills.”
Another user said, “Something similar happens with ICICI as well. I had registered for electricity bill payment via netbanking for a rental apartment. I still get the exact electricity bill via SMS (sent by ICICI) till today.”
Many users also highlighted that these alerts regarding electric bill payments continue even if they have deactivated their accounts in the apps. A user wrote, “Paytm sends me emails/sms with my electricity bill number even after my account has been deleted.” Kodali said, “The issue here is consent. They haven’t asked for my permission to access my electric bill. The second point of contention is, there is no way to stop this.”