Privacy row: Govt steps in, writes to Whatsapp to withdraw privacy policy updates

The Indian Government has now stepped in to intervene in the Whatsapp privacy row. As per media reports, the  Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has written to Will Cathcart, CEO, WhatsApp, raising concerns over the recent decision of the messaging app to bring changes in its privacy policy.

The Ministry’s letter raises strong concerns over the metadata security of the chats of Whatsapp users with business accounts once the integration with other Facebook companies is completed, which the Ministry said would create greater security risks and make users vulnerable. Hence, the Ministry has asked Whatsapp to withdraw the privacy policy updates.

The Ministry has expressed its displeasure over Whatsapp’s stringent stance for Indian users, wherein users have no option but to accept the changed privacy policies and cannot opt-out of it. The Ministry also noted that the privacy policies changes for the European Union were more lenient.

The Ministry has sent a list of questions to Whatsapp regarding its privacy and data security policies, particularly what categories of data the messaging app collects from Indian users and how it intends to use this data.

As reported earlier, following the severe backlash, Whatsapp has decided to postpone updating its privacy policy changes till May 15, 2021. In the meantime, massive shift has been reported to rival platforms like Signal and Telegram from Whatsapp.

Will Whatsapp step down from its stance? We will know in the coming days.