Tribunal told of GovChat's access to personal info
On the second day of hearings at the Competition Tribunal yesterday, the tribunal heard that GovChat had vast access to many South Africans' information through its WhatsApp chatbot service and that this breach meant GovChat should be off-boarded from WhatsApp's business platform, notes a Fin24 report.
The hearings kicked off last week after GovChat approached the tribunal to prevent WhatsApp from removing it from the WhatsApp business platform.
GovChat manages a chatbot on WhatsApp which communicates with citizens about services offered by government.
Government has used the chatbot on WhatsApp to communicate with South Africans on matters including the Sassa, the social relief of distress grant provided in response to the economic impact of Covid-19, and the subsequent national lockdown.
Last week GovChat representative Advocate Paul Farlam told the Competition Tribunal that if WhatsApp were allowed to off-board GovChat it would put GovChat and its subsidiary Hashtag LetsTalk out of business, and inconvenience government and millions of citizens.
However, representatives for Facebook South Africa and WhatsApp Advocate Jerome Wilson told the tribunal yesterday that GovChat sought to make itself a de facto communications platform for government while it was not even a government-owned entity.
‘GovChat seeks to intermediate itself between government and citizens as a profit-making entity. It seems to aspire to become the official communication channel for the South African Government and effectively be the gateway through which citizens access government through WhatsApp,’ said Wilson.
GovChat hopes to monetise confidential information of citizens using WhatsApp's platform and this is prejudicial to WhatsApp, said Wilson.
‘WhatsApp's platform is being hijacked by a private entity that is masquerading as an arm of government and citizens are exposed as they believe they are communicating with the government as they share highly sensitive and confidential information. This exposes WhatsApp,’ Wilson is quoted as saying in the Fin24 report.
Wilson said maintaining the status quo created an untenable situation for everyone involved except for GovChat.
He said nothing was stopping GovChat from securing services with chatbots to get a software vendor or third party to continue its chatbot services.
‘This case has nothing to do with refusing WhatsApp access to the business API. It is to say they cannot continue to have access in the manner that they do. They are breaking rules and getting unfair advantage over other business solution providers,’ he said.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
