Zoho's Arattai will disable username-based account feature, says Sridhar Vembu
New Delhi, July 3
Zoho's instant messaging app Arattai will no longer have the username-based account feature, said Sridhar Vembu.
Taking to his official X account, the Zoho co-founder and chief scientist shared that the recent change has been made to comply with the regulatory change.
"We will be disabling the user name based account feature in Arattai, to comply with the regulatory change," he said.
This comes after the Indian government issued a notice to Meta regarding the roll-out of the feature on WhatsApp, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), as it is increasing scrutiny over the 'username' feature.
On Wednesday, the Centre issued a notice to Meta over WhatsApp's planned "usernames" feature in India, warning that it could increase the risk of online fraud, phishing, and "digital arrest" scams.
The government has expressed concern regarding the 'usernames' feature, stating it may enable "impersonation and identity spoofing," and has asked Meta to furnish a detailed explanation within three days.
The notice stated, "It is felt that the feature may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, by enabling bad actors to solicit and message victims. Furthermore, this feature may facilitate impersonation and identity spoofing, including impersonation of individuals, public authorities, financial institutions, and government agencies, by permitting the adoption of usernames closely resembling those of genuine persons or institutions."
Additionally, the Indian government has asked Meta not to roll out the feature until satisfactory consultation with the government.
As per a WhatsApp spokesperson, the company has already announced the option for people to reserve their preferred username on the platform.
"The ability to use a username is not yet live and will roll out slowly later this year. To protect against impersonation, we've held the highest-profile names -- think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts -- so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners, and lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well," the statement said.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Good move by Sridhar Vembu ji. But I wish the government had been equally strict with Meta when they first introduced this feature. Why treat all companies differently? Indian startups should get the same level of scrutiny and respect as global giants. 👏
Makes sense from a security perspective. Even in the US, we've seen too many impersonation scams on platforms like Telegram and Discord because of usernames. Glad to see Indian regulators being proactive about this rather than reacting after the damage is done.
While I understand the security concern, isn't this a bit too much government control? Usernames are useful for privacy - you don't have to share your phone number with strangers. Instead of banning features, why not implement better verification systems? 🤔
This is wonderful news for all of us who have fallen prey to digital scams! My father almost lost 50,000 rupees last month because someone used a fake username posing as a bank official. If more companies follow Zoho's example, our parents will be much safer online. Jai Hind! 🇮🇳
The government should also look at how to prevent these issues without taking away useful features. I understand the security concern, but usernames can help protect actual phone numbers from being leaked. Maybe a compromise like requiring government ID verification for certain username types?
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.