HIGHLIGHTS
- WhatsApp has begun informing users about the upgrade.
- WhatsApp is not the only service that requires a legal name.
- WhatsApp just gained clearance from the NPCI to enhance its payments capability.
WhatsApp has begun detecting "legal" identities of users who have activated its Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payments service. These names, which are tied with the users' bank accounts and may differ from profile names, will also be displayed to persons who receive payments over WhatsApp. The new step is a result of UPI standards established by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to avoid fraud, according to the Meta-owned instant messaging service.
To notify users of the upgrade, WhatsApp has begun displaying a message in its app with a link to a FAQ page outlining the legal name requirement.
"Other UPI users will be able to see your legal name if you utilize payments on WhatsApp. This is the same name as the one on your bank account "According to the FAQ page.
The notification has been going out to users on both Android and iOS since late March, in accordance with the NPCI's standards. It appears in WhatsApp's Help section as a new shortcut called About UPI payments and legal name, with a link to the FAQ page.
"The name linked with your bank account will be shared," according to the FAQ website.
Normally, WhatsApp users may choose any name from a list of up to 25 characters to use on the service. They may also add emojis to their profile name to make it more unique. However, the new requirement requires the app to identify and reveal the genuine identities of its users as they appear on their bank accounts when they join up for the payments function.
"To avoid fraud, UPI principles require that the receiver name be revealed to the sender throughout the transaction," a WhatsApp official told Gadgets 360 in a statement. "In accordance with this compliance requirement and the practice of other UPI apps, WhatsApp displays the recipient name on the UPI PIN screen."
Although other UPI-based payment systems demand specific user credentials, including their legal name, at the time of signup, some privacy activists regard WhatsApp's requirement differently.
"Traditional payments applications launched as pure payment tools with the assumption that linked bank accounts and legal identities would be given," said Srikanth Lakshmanan, a coordinator with consumer awareness group Cashless Consumer. "However, WhatsApp is integrating payments into a social networking service – which has never been given legal names."
Prateek Waghre, Policy Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital rights advocacy group, agreed with Lakshmanan and stated that users must be cautious.
"You don't have to tell someone your whole legal identity just because you make a payment using WhatsApp. That is something I believe WhatsApp should consider in terms of how they can secure users' privacy in this use case "Waghre stated.
Lakshmanan also stated a hypothetical fear, which Waghre shared, that Meta could ultimately be able to link users' Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger identities with their legal names on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp representative, on the other hand, clearly denied Meta access to users' legal names.
"When WhatsApp shows this [legal] name, Meta does not have access," the representative added.
The demand of legal names by WhatsApp, according to Kazim Rizvi, Founding Director of public-policy think-tank The Dialogue, is nothing more than a standard compliance requirement required by all payment applications.
"As a messaging network, WhatsApp allows its users to choose any name they like," he explained.
WhatsApp has been working hard to increase the use of its payments function in the nation for quite some time. The app gained approval from NPCI last month to expand its functionality to 100 million users. It also just began rewarding users who make payments over WhatsApp with rebates.
