Mumbai, India (CU)_ India is allegedly asking WhatsApp to reverse its recent change in privacy policy. WhatsApp has finally responded to India’s request. WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart received an email from Indian IT ministry requesting the company to “withdraw the proposed changes” to its terms of service that seemed to compel users to share personal data such as phone numbers and locations.
The ministry wrote, “Such a differential treatment is prejudicial to the interests of Indian users and is viewed with serious concern by the government. The government of India owes a sovereign responsibility to its citizens to ensure that their interests are not compromised and therefore it calls upon WhatsApp to respond to concerns raised in this letter.”
India is the largest market for WhatsApp which houses over 400 million users out of the 2 billion users of the app. Initially, WhatsApp announced that users may be losing access to the app if they do not consent to the new terms before February 8, but later postponed the policy adjustment to three months following pushback.
Following the government’s letter requesting the removal of the new policy for Indian users, WhatsApp’s Global CEO, Will Cathcart stressed that WhatsApp social media platform’s proposed privacy policy is not intended to enhance the sharing of data, but to include solutions to help companies grow. The new policy that requires user data to be shared with its parent company Facebook or third-party apps was expected to come into force in February but was delayed until May following the oppose.
A statement released by a WhatsApp spokesperson said, “We wish to reinforce that this update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook. Our aim is to provide transparency and new options available to engage with businesses so they can serve their customers and grow. WhatsApp will always protect personal messages with end-to-end encryption so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see them. We are working to address misinformation and remain available to answer any questions”.
Writing in the context of a proposed Personal Data protection act, the Ministry of Technology raised issues about the sharing of metadata from users, claiming it would form a “honeypot of information” that could generate security risks and user vulnerabilities. It also challenged the “all or nothing approach” of the social media site, which pressures users to support the new policy. The Department raised 14 questions, including categories of user data obtained, as to whether consumers were profiled on the basis of utilization and cross-border data flows.
Issues over the privacy policies of WhatsApp were also taken to the Delhi High Court, which said users are free to choose other messaging sites. In response to a petition alleging that the revised policy violates the user’s constitutional right to privacy, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said, “It is a private app. Don’t join it. It is a voluntary thing, don’t accept it. Use some other app”. The petition alleges that WhatsApp’s latest privacy policy permits unlimited access to a user’s online behaviour without government oversight.
