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The WhatsApp messaging app displays on an Apple iPhone on May 14, 2019 in San Anselmo, California. Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app has announced a cybersecurity breach that leaves users vulnerable to the installation of malicious spyware on iPhone and Android smartphones. WhatsApp encourages its 1.5 billion users to update the app as soon as possible.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
India’s Technology Ministry has asked Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp to withdraw planned changes to its privacy policy that have sparked widespread backlash, multiple media reported.
In an email to dated WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart On January 18, the electronics and information technology ministry said the proposed changes raised “serious concerns” about the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens, Reuters reported.
The update is specifically about the features that allow users to interact with businesses on WhatsApp.
The ministry is said to have expressed concern about the lack of choice of Indian users in relation to the planned policy update of WhatsApp compared to those in Europe, where data protection rules are stricter. The technology ministry reportedly called it “discriminatory treatment” which “betrays a lack of respect for the rights and interests of Indian citizens.”
“Therefore, you are called upon to withdraw the proposed changes,” the ministry reportedly wrote, according to Reuters. The newswire added that the ministry had asked WhatsApp to answer 14 questions, including the type of user data it collects, if it profiles users based on their usage patterns and flows. cross-border data.
CNBC was unable to independently verify the contents of the letters.
A spokesperson for WhatsApp told CNBC in a statement, “We would like to stress that this update does not extend our ability to share data with Facebook.”
“Our goal is to provide transparency and new options available to interact with businesses so that they can serve their customers and grow. WhatsApp will always protect personal messages with end-to-end encryption so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook cannot see them, “the spokesperson told me.
What is the update about?
WhatsApp later said the update will not change the end-to-end encryption of personal conversations, which means the app and Facebook still won’t be able to view private messages. WhatsApp also said it does not share people’s contacts with Facebook.
WhatsApp was scheduled to start urging users on February 8 to agree to these updated terms to continue using the app. Since then, the Facebook-owned app has said it will delay implementing its scheduled policy update until May 15 to give people more time to “review the policy at their own pace.”
India is a huge market for WhatsApp
India is one of the biggest markets for WhatsApp with over 400 million users. The company’s plans for the country go beyond simple messaging – as of last year, users can send money through the app.
Whether it is WhatsApp, whether it is Facebook, whether it is any other digital platform, you are free to do business in India … but do it in a way that does not infringe on Indian rights. .
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Indian Minister of Technology
“It has become a platform for a lot of things. Small businesses and businesses use WhatsApp to perform commerce, payments and payroll data sharing,” Abishur Prakash, a geopolitics specialist at the Center for Innovating the Future ( CIF), a consulting firm, CNBC told via email. “This makes WhatsApp, a US service, a new kind of infrastructure for doing business in India.”
The stakes for WhatsApp in India are very high, according to Prakash. He explained that it is possible that the courier giant will change its policy “because of the strategic position that India occupies in its strategy”.
Seen through the prism of technology and data sovereignty, New Delhi wants to establish its own data frontiers after pushing for an open data market where big tech companies share information with Indian companies, Prakash said. “This makes the new WhatsApp policy contrary to the direction New Delhi is heading.”
Indian Minister of Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday had a few choice words for Facebook, WhatsApp and other tech companies operating in the country.
“Whether it’s WhatsApp, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s any other digital platform, you are free to do business in India,” he said at a virtual event. “But do it in a way that does not infringe on the rights of the Indians who operate there.”
“And the sanctity of personal communications must be maintained,” he added. “I know there will be pressure to share (data, but) this is just unacceptable.”
– CNBC Arjun kharpal contributed to this report.
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