Google Pay to give users more control over transaction data

Google Pay

Google Pay, the payment arm of the US tech major Google, will next week launch privacy features that allow users to manage transaction data.

This includes deleting individual transactions and activity records that the users don’t want the app to use for personalisation. This feature for controlling what data the platform can use for personalisation is a part of the app upgrade that will be released.

“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,” said Ambarish Kenghe, Vice President - Product, Google Pay, in a blog.

Turning on the privacy controls will let Google Pay provide a tailored experience for users such as relevant rewards based on their activity.

“Even with this setting turned off, Google Pay will continue to work just as well - only without personalisation. Users who update Google Pay on Android and iOS can access these controls to modify their personalisation experience on Google Pay based on their preference,” Kenghe added.

Kenghe also said in the blog that this move is in line with the company’s commitment to offer users privacy in payment products and services.

“Your financial and transaction information on Google Pay has always been governed by your consent. Your personal information is never sold to anyone and your transaction history is not shared with any other Google product for targeting ads,” he added.

This comes at a time when WhatsApp’s new policy is kicking in. Also, recently Google Pay has been losing its market share to its India rivals Paytm and PhonePe as the tech giants saw increased transaction failure between November 2021 and January 2021.

According to a Mint report quoting NPCI data, PhonePe and Paytm saw 100 million and 72 million increased transactions in the period, whereas Google Pay’s transaction fell by over 100 million to around 855 million at the end of January 2021.