WhatsApp Privacy Policy: Government questions CEO, asks to withdraw recent changes to privacy policy

Source: Reuters

The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to withdraw the recent changes in the privacy policy of the messaging app, saying 'any unilateral changes to the WhatsApp Terms of Service and Privacy would not be fair and acceptable'.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was opposed to this 'all or nothing' option that Whatsapp had left for its users when it first rolled out the new update.

In a strongly worded letter to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart, the ministry also raised concerns about the information security of the users as the new policy of WhatsApp proposes to share the metadata of users' chat with business accounts with other Facebook companies.

The proposed changes to WhatsApp's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy "raise grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens," it wrote.

CEO Will Cathcart has been asked to furnish a response to the government's questions regarding, privacy, data transfer, and sharing policies, ANI reported.

•  Disclose the exact categories of data that WhatsApp application collects from Indian users.
• Give details of the permissions and user consent sought by WhatsApp app and the utility of each of these with respect to the functioning and specific service provided.
• Does WhatsApp conduct profiling of Indian users on the basis of their usage of the application? What nature of profiling is conducted?
• Details of the difference between WhatsApp privacy policies in other countries and India.
• Details of Data Security Policy, Information Security Policy, Cyber Security Policy, Privacy Policy and Encryption Policy.
• Does the WhatsApp app share data with any other app or business unit of the same company or associated companies? Share details of the data flow among these apps, business units, or associated companies.
• Does WhatsApp app capture the information about the other apps running on the mobile device of the user? If yes, what information is being captured by the app and what purpose is it being collected and used?
• Details about the server when data of Indian users is transmitted or hosted. Has the company or application provided any access to a third party to access a user's personal data? If yes, then share those details.

The Ministry in its letter also reminded the Facebook-owned company about the principles of privacy and consent laid down by Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (2017) judgement.

As India is already considering the Personal Data Protection Bill, the Ministry pointed out to the company that it would grossly violate this bill, if it becomes a law soon.

An important principle of this bill, which is at an advanced stage of consideration by the Joint Select Committee of both houses of the Parliament, is 'purpose limitation' when it comes to data processing.

This basically means that companies can only use the data of their users for the specific purpose for which users have given their consent. The updated privacy policy will make it challenging for WhatsApp to comply with this principle.

Another very important point raised by the ministry is the differential privacy policies that the company has chalked out for the European Union and India.

Indians form a considerable chunk of the user base for the messaging app and this 'discriminatory treatment' towards Indians 'shows a lack of respect for interests of Indian citizens by WhatsApp'.  The Government has all rights to protect the interests of Indian citizens and it shall not comprise on that, at any cost.