The snooping row surrounding Pegasus's privacy breach on WhatsApp may lead to the delay of WhatsApp Pay launch in India, reported Business Standard. The government, sources told media, is planning a comprehensive safety audit of the payments platform.

Officials from various ministries, the report added, have opined against making Unified Payments Interface (UPI) available on a platform whose security is possibly compromised. Further, key RBI officials too have raised concerns regarding the safety of the financial data of Indians who will use WhatsApp Pay.

The development comes after WhatsApp confirmed that Israeli spyware was used for snooping on several people in the country. WhatsApp had alerted several academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists that their phones had been under state-of-the-art surveillance for a two-week period until May. As per a letter sent by WhatsApp to the IT ministry in September, 121 Indians were compromised by the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Later, IT ministry found gaps in WhatsApp reply on Pegasus surveillance issue and decided to write to the company over its response to the government charges that the messaging company didn't inform it on time and with details that personal data of Indians were compromised by the spyware.

First Published:Nov 6, 2019 11:39 AM IST