Whatsapp asked to junk privacy policy
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has for a second time asked messaging service provider Whatsapp to roll back an update of its terms of use as it undermines “informational privacy, data security, and user choice”, union IT ministry officials said on Wednesday, citing a notice that was sent to the Facebook-owned company with a warning of punitive action.
According to a ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) representative, Whatsapp informed the government that it had deferred the May 15 implementation of the terms. This is not what Whatsapp told the Delhi high court as recently as May 17. But the government has insisted that the new policy be withdrawn in entirety.
“Whatsapp had earlier claimed that it officially deferred its new Privacy Policy beyond 15th May 2021,” an official familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named. The ministry told the company that the changes in its terms of use and the way they were implemented “undermine the sacrosanct values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users and harms the rights and interests of Indian citizens”.
The new terms of use formalises Whatsapp’s years-old policy of sharing some data with its parent company in instances when a user interacts with a business account. The company first proposed to implement it in January and said users who do not accept it will have their accounts deleted, but delayed it to May 15 after a backlash from users as well as the government.
The policy has come into force, the company on May 17 told the Delhi high court— where the matter is also being heard—adding that it will continue to “persuade” users to accept it before their accounts are eventually deleted if they don’t comply.
On May 14, a Whatsapp representative told HT that users who had not lost lose any functionality till that point would not lose any additional features after May 15, a stand that appeared to be contradicted by its counsel in HC.
“We continue to engage with the government and we reaffirm what we said before that this update does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone. Our goal is to provide information about new options we are building that people will have, to message a business on Whatsapp, in the future,” a Whatsapp spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“While the majority of users who have received the new terms of service have accepted them, we appreciate some people haven’t had the chance to do so yet. No accounts were deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India lost functionality of Whatsapp either,” this person said, while adding that the company will continue to send “reminders to people over the next several weeks”.
The ministry first wrote to Whatsapp on January 19, urging it to abandon its plans.