In its biggest step so far, global tech giant Google has updated its India policy to unveil features designed to improve privacy for Google Pay users, allowing them control over transaction data and allaying fears of regulators about the potential misuse of data.
Google Pay is poised to introduce new features from next week that will give individuals more controls to choose how their Google Pay activity is used to personalise features. It is worth mentioning here that the new updates are applicable only for individual users and not merchants, whose transaction data is used for cross-selling loans, subject to consent.
Ambarish Kenghe, vice president-product, Google Pay, in the blog post noted that the new personalisation features will allow users to restrict Google from accessing their transaction history or share them with third parties. Based on the settings that users opt for, Google Pay will send them prompts or ads thus giving them a “personalised experience.” Users can also opt-out of this feature if they want to see any prompts or ads at all.
“We are committed to do more and are excited to announce the next big step towards giving you more choice and control to manage your transaction data on Google Pay. Starting next week, your Google Pay app settings will provide you with more controls to decide how your Google Pay activity is used to personalise features within the app. All users will be asked to choose whether they would like to turn the control on or off as soon as they upgrade to the next version of the Google Pay app,” Kenghe said. He further noted that a user’s personal information is never sold to anyone and your transaction history is not shared with any other Google product for targeting ads.
Google Pay will prompt users if they would like to turn the control on or off as soon as they upgrade to the next version of the Google Pay app. Google notes that while turning on personalisation within Google Pay’ will provide a more tailored experience within Google Pay, turning the settings off would continue to work like how it does, only without the personalisation. Users will have to turn on or turn off the toggle depending on their preference. If users turn on the personalization, they will receive more relevant offers and rewards based on activity within Google Pay, including their transaction history.
