To big tech, India must send a message

Whatsapp, the most popular mobile communication tool in the world, is going to great lengths to explain that its new use policy does not jeopardise the privacy of its users by sending additional data to its parent company, Facebook. The unusual — but not unprecedented — full-page advertisements in newspapers carrying this clarification came after reports indicated that a formidably large number of people may be leaving Whatsapp for rivals such as Signal and Telegram. The company now says that its new policy — a take-it-or-leave-it situation where users will have to delete their accounts if they choose not to abide by it — is valid only for communication with business accounts on Whatsapp. The company believes this is less of a problem since communicating with a business account is optional.

There are two issues here — a seemingly bad faith approach by making the policy mandatory (people are likely to be forced into accepting it because their friends, families and colleagues are all on Whatsapp); and a violation of the principle of purpose limitation. In simpler terms, the latter means data should be collected and processed for only the purposes they are meant for — in Whatsapp’s case, this is merely communication. The company is not mandated to follow these principles (and others that could stop it from making such a move) unless it is laid down in law, like it has been in Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. And that is why European users will not be subject to the take-it-or-leave-it new policy that the rest of the world will. The episode is now a strong reminder of why India must expedite work on its own data protection law so that Indians have a right to say to big tech — “We don’t agree”.