{"id":108313,"date":"2021-05-24T09:56:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T04:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=108313"},"modified":"2021-05-24T09:56:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T04:26:23","slug":"whatsapps-privacy-policy-and-data-protection-law-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/whatsapps-privacy-policy-and-data-protection-law-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp&#8217;s Privacy Policy and Data Protection law in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>The government sought a response against <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/whatsapp-privacy-policy-issue-and-data-protection-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WhatsApp&#8217;s Privacy policy<\/a>, but it is just a short-sighted one. The government should focus on long-term solutions like <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-taking-it-personally-data-protection-bill-7th-december-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enacting data protection law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The central government recently issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-asks-whatsapp-to-revoke-changes-in-its-privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notice to WhatsApp to withdraw<\/a> its updated privacy policy. But this is a clear government intervention into a legitimate business decision.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>The development of WhatsApp&#8217;s privacy policy:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/what-is-new-in-whatsapps-privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WhatsApp updated its privacy policy<\/a> earlier this year. Under this policy, WhatsApp can share data (such as location and number) with its parent company Facebook unless they delete their accounts altogether. The App initially proposed a February 8 deadline.<\/li>\n<li>This <strong>attracted harsh criticisms<\/strong> from the government and experts. Further, there was also an <strong>exodus of user migration<\/strong> to rival platforms such as, Signal.<\/li>\n<li>WhatsApp moved the deadline to May 15. Eventually, WhatsApp decided not to enforce the policy itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Reason behind WhatsApp&#8217;s Privacy policy:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The App has more than two billion users in the world. Among them, about half a billion are Indians. The privacy policy aims to <strong>make business interactions easier<\/strong>. At the same time, the policy aims to<strong> create personalised ads<\/strong> on Facebook.<\/li>\n<li>In its affidavit in the Delhi High Court, WhatsApp has reportedly said that it is<strong> not forcing users to accept<\/strong> the updated privacy policy. As the users have the <strong>option to delete their accounts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>The Government response:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) has sought a response from WhatsApp within seven days. Due to the following reasons,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The MEITY thought that the Privacy policy is discriminating against Indian users as Indians depend on WhatsApp for communication.<\/li>\n<li>The ministry is also of the opinion that WhatsApp is imposing unfair terms and conditions. As the similar policy is not applicable for WhatsApp&#8217;s European users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Concerns with government decision:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It is a business decision:\u00a0<\/strong>The privacy policy reflects WhatsApp&#8217;s strong business decision. The users can avoid accepting the policy and delete their accounts. Even WhatsApp is <strong>ready to take the risk of user migrations<\/strong> to other Apps. This is also reflected in the WhatsApp affidavit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>WhatsApp is not the only one: <\/strong>Private apps such as Google, BigBasket, Koo, and public apps such as Aarogya Setu, Bhim, IRCTC, and others also use similar privacy policies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India did not have <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/decoding-europes-new-data-protection-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR<\/a> like the EU: <\/strong>The government instead of seeking a response from companies has to enact a<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/need-for-a-robust-personal-data-protection-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> data protection law<\/a> in line with the GDPR.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GHU8JOJ57.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The government sought a response against WhatsApp&#8217;s Privacy policy, but it is just a short-sighted one. The government should focus on long-term solutions like enacting data protection law. Introduction: The central government recently issued a notice to WhatsApp to withdraw its updated privacy policy. But this is a clear government intervention into a legitimate&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/whatsapps-privacy-policy-and-data-protection-law-in-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WhatsApp&#8217;s Privacy Policy and Data Protection law in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1293],"class_list":["post-108313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-sec_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704614639},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}