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ISLAMABAD: With cybersecurity being a major concern, Minister of Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said his ministry was considering introducing strong data protection law to protect citizens’ privacy.
His comments came on Sunday in response to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy that allows the sharing of sensitive consumer information. The new policy requires users to share personal data such as location, IP addresses, operating systems, information about how subscribers interacted with each other and even information over the mobile network. and mobile devices such as IMEI number.
The new terms of service, which are expected to come into effect in one month, on February 8, come with the condition that if users refuse to share data with Facebook, they will have to quit WhatsApp.
WhatsApp started rolling out its app update notifications earlier this week, saying there has been a change in its terms of service and privacy policy. Users have been told that the app will process their data quite differently due to its new partnership with Facebook.
“And it is particularly disturbing that these new terms do not apply to subscribers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe,” said the Federal Minister of Science and Technology. Dawn describing the new “discriminatory” policy.
Mr Hussain said cybersecurity was a major concern and his ministry was taking initiatives to protect subscribers’ personal data.
He argued that instead of taking a “one-sided” approach, such policy changes should have been made after wider consultation.
“WhatsApp may have claimed that it would allow other sister organizations such as Facebook to access certain users’ information for advertising purposes. But once the encryption is removed, WhatsApp’s sister companies will have access to all subscriber information, ”the minister explained.
According to a senior official with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), users are likely to see advertisements in the future as they do when watching videos on YouTube and other social media platforms.
However, he said, it was too early for the PTA to react, which was still evaluating the new policy and how it would affect users.
According to the official, most of the information that WhatsApp will allow other organizations to access is “sensitive and therefore alarming data.”
“None of the user information, which WhatsApp now wants to pass on to other companies, was not allowed in its previous privacy policy,” he said, adding that social media platform Facebook had purchased WhatsApp in 2014.
While responding to numerous criticisms from IT experts that their privacy and personal information would be compromised, WhatsApp maintained that personal chats would remain end-to-end encrypted and that no third party would be able to. to read them. He said the update didn’t change WhatsApp data sharing practices with Facebook and didn’t impact how people communicate privately with friends or family.
Internet activist Nighat Dad, who heads a nonprofit Digital Rights Foundation, shared the federal minister’s concerns. “It is worrying that the new conditions do not apply to EU countries,” she said.
“Facebook already has access to a lot of our personal information, but that’s okay because it was an informed decision. But what about all those around the world who don’t use Facebook and only WhatsApp for privacy reasons or for whatever reason. This makes us wonder why WhatsApp needs information like our handset model, our local phone numbers and our location to mention some important data that they will now ask for under the new terms, ”he said. she declared.
She also feared that in the future Pakistan would come up with its own laws to protect consumer data, which she described as draconian as the Pakistan Electronic Crime Act (PECA), which compromises users’ personal data. .
Posted in Dawn, January 11, 2021
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