On May 9, 2017 Observer Research Foundation (ORF) published a brief entitled, “Privacy and security risks of digital payments.”
The executive summary reads as follows:
“Digital financial services have benefits but pose privacy risks that harm consumers, merchants, markets, and nations alike. Some payments systems in India suffer from vulnerabilities because they were not prospectively designed on the basis of the ‘privacy by design’ principle. At the back-end, the centralised storage of data is risky. At the front-end, faulty capture devices enable data misuse. Across the middle mile, data is transmitted without strong encryption. Payment systems must be redesigned to prospectively protect privacy and use unbreakable encryption and open standards. A data privacy legislation and a strong market regulator are also necessary.”
This brief argues “that as digital financial services continue to grow in India, the country’s data privacy and security regime must be strengthened.”
You may read the brief on the research page of the ORF internet site.