Hyderabad: Google takes consent from users to store their bank account and Aadhaar numbers, a clause which is buried deep in the privacy policy of Google Pay. While Google Pay itself doesn't support transactions related to Aadhaar, Google claimed that it do not store the account and Aadhaar information.
Google Pay's privacy policy reads, "In the event that you are a Recipient, you hereby consent Google to permit the Sender to store your information including bank account number and Aadhaar number on Google Pay for the purpose of sending you payments".
Google's digital payment app for India, Tez, was rechristened Google Pay in August. Due to the regulatory requirement earlier Google was collecting consent but there was no need now. When a user adds any information to Tez, it automatically associates it to the Google account. The policy, even after its renaming, remains same as that of Tez.
Experts say that there is no reason for Google to take consent for something that they are not using. Mr Anivar Arvind said, "Even for Tez, Google was collecting consent. At that point, there were chances of using the 'Pay 2 Aadhaar' facility. Now that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has retired that option, there is no room for the feature even in future. They need to remove the consent collection, if they are not supporting it."
Giving third party facility consent to add Aadhar number against the Google account is not compatible even with Google's privacy policy.
Mr Ranjit Raj of Swecha FSMI said, "This is a privacy violating consent collection to store and associate Aadhaar with the Google account. There is no reason to collect consent. There is a need to seriously look at privacy policy as it is a legally binding document that helps users when in trouble."
Mr Arvind has previously reported this to Google as well, when Tez was launched. He said that Google's primary policy feature was that 'if something is not benefiting the user, don't do that'. "They collect data where they see some user benefit. With the consent collection they are neither benefiting the user nor themselves," Mr Arvind said.
When asked about this, a Google spokesperson said, "Google Pay does not support 'Pay 2 Aadhaar. People using Google Pay can use the service by just linking their bank account with their registered mobile number. We do not collect the Aadhaar number of users on Google Pay."
