India asks WhatsApp to withdraw changes in its privacy policy

The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to withdraw the recent changes in the privacy policy of the messaging app, saying unilateral changes are not fair and acceptable.

In a strongly worded letter to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart, India’s Ministry of Information and Technology (MEITY) said India is home to the largest users base of WhatsApp globally and is one of the biggest marketers for its services.

The letter notes that sharing of some data — including business data — generated with WhatsApp with Facebook will weaken the information security of the users.

One of the key objections raised by the MEITY is the non-voluntary nature of the new policy. Users will have to accept it or else they will not be able to use WhatsApp, and MEITY says that this lack of choice is unfair to users.

The letter also reminds WhatsApp of the Indian Supreme Court judgment on privacy delivered in 2017 and the proposed data protection law. It notes that in this context, WhatsApp coming out with a policy that allows for more data exchange between Facebook and WhatsApp is untenable because the proposed bill allows collection and usage of data for only specific services, and that data collected from one service cannot be used in another service.

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy was creating controversies forcing users to look for other chat apps.