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ARTICLE · 15 SEPTEMBER 2026

WhatsApp's Shift To Usernames: Impersonation Risk, Regulatory Pushback And The DPDP Compliance Test

S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
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S.S. Rana & Co.

S.S. Rana & Co.

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WhatsApp’s proposed move away from phone-number-based identification towards a username-based system has, within days of being reported, triggered two distinct but connected reactions in India: public concern voiced by industry founders and privacy experts over impersonation and data-sharing risk, and a reported regulatory direction to Meta to pause the feature’s India rollout pending consultations.

IndiaPrivacy
Vikrant Rana
Vikrant Rana
Anuradha Gandhi
Anuradha Gandhi
Rishabh Gupta
Rishabh Gupta
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Introduction

WhatsApp’s proposed move away from phone-number-based identification towards a username-based system has, within days of being reported, triggered two distinct but connected reactions in India: public concern voiced by industry founders and privacy experts over impersonation and data-sharing risk, and a reported regulatory direction to Meta to pause the feature’s India rollout pending consultations. Read together, these developments sit squarely at the intersection of intellectual property law, personality rights and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”), and merit close attention from brand owners, public figures and ordinary users alike.

Background

WhatsApp has historically tied user identity to a verified mobile number, a design choice that indirectly limited certain forms of impersonation by anchoring an account to telecom KYC records. The platform’s reported shift to usernames — a model long used by Instagram, Telegram and X — is intended,

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