WhatsApp may face legal action in India by May 25 if it does not send a satisfactory reply to a new notice sent by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asking the company to withdraw its latest privacy policy update, ministry officials said.
“We have a sovereign responsibility to protect the rights and interests of Indian citizens. The government will consider various options available under the law,” a senior IT ministry official said.
The ministry has taken a strong position on the matter, and made it clear that it is not just problematic but also “irresponsible” for the messaging platform to leverage its position to impose “unfair” terms and conditions on Indian users, when many depend on WhatsApp to communicate in everyday life, according to the sources.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the company continues to engage with the government. “Our goal is to provide information about new options we are building that people will have, to message a business on WhatsApp, in the future.”
“No accounts were deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India lost functionality of WhatsApp either.
“… we reaffirm what we said before that this update does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone… we’ll take every opportunity to explain how we protect people’s personal messages and private information,” the spokesperson added.
Sources noted that WhatsApp had earlier claimed that it officially deferred its new privacy policy beyond May 15, 2021.
However, the ministry in its communication has asserted that deferral of the privacy policy beyond May 15, does not absolve WhatsApp from respecting the values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users.
It has highlighted that the changes to the privacy policy and the manner of introducing the changes including by way of FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) undermines the values of privacy, data security and user choice.
The ministry has also taken the same stand in the Delhi High Court, where this matter is sub-judice, the source pointed out.
With over 400 million users, India is one of the biggest markets for WhatsApp. As of July 2020, the company had more than 50 million WhatsApp Business users globally, of which over 15 million used the service in India every month.
