Paytm is open to data safety law: Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Mobile payments app Paytm is open to any kind of regulation, including one that the telecom regulator may want to bring in, to ensure that data of its consumers is safe and secure, its founder said, breaking away from the crowd of app makers, most of which have expressed their reservation against any regulation.

Other app makers, however, countered the view with the likes of Nikhil Pahwa, co-founder of Internet Freedom Foundation, saying that those wanting regulation of apps may want to use it as a tool to gain competitive advantage, and their views do not reflect the view point of all app makers. Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which represents apps such as Facebook, Amazon, Makemytrip and Flipkart, said that app makers were already heavily regulated under the IT Act.

However, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma told ET that some form of regulation is needed to ensure that the data belonging to not just its over 320 million consumers, but of all Indians, must not be allowed to go out of the country.

“Data or apps need to be regulated to the extent that individuals have privacy, control and ownership of their data and can control who can or cannot use their data. Right now, there’s neither a privacy law in the country, nor restrictions to corporates who are using that data,” Sharma said.

When asked whether the country’s largest mobile payments player which is also a payments bank now, was open to being brought under any new laws, Sharma said, “100%. We’re totally clear and we’re asking that entities that hold customer data must not be using that data and letting the data get leaked out.”

Sharma’s comments came a few days after ET reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) was looking to seek additional powers to bring apps and data flowing on telecom networks under its control as part of its recommendations on ownership, privacy and security of data on telecom networks, which are expected this month.

Sources said Trai is also likely to define what is personal information or data flowing through telecom networks and who actually owns that data. The telecom regulator’s recommendations could also feed into the ongoing consultations of a committee headed by former Supreme Court Justice BN Srikrishna that is drafting India’s first law on data protection.

Paytm went along with Trai’s views, on the lines that data of consumers should explicitly remain with them. “We as a country cannot allow misuse of data. Companies have unprecedented amount of data on consumers. But the debate that who owns that data has only one answer -- customer owns that data and no one else should be allowed to own it, be it company or government,” Sharma said.

But app makers and proponents of free internet say that any new regulation cannot be done in an arbitrary way, without taking into account views from stakeholders.