Government of India asked WhatsApp to withdraw new privacy policy
The Government of India has asked WhatsApp to withdraw the recent changes made in the privacy policy. The government said the unilateral changes are unfair and unacceptable. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a harsh letter to WhatsApp Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Will Cathcart that India has the largest number of users of WhatsApp and India is the largest market for WhatsApp.The proposed change in WhatsApp’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy has not given its users the option to opt-out, the letter said.
This raises serious concerns regarding the autonomy and choice of Indian citizens. The ministry asked WhatsApp to withdraw the proposed changes and rethink its approach to information privacy, freedom of choice and data security.
Communications, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at the 15th India Digital Summit that national security would be given the highest importance during contact with international companies. WhatsApp has been heavily criticized around the world including India recently on the issue of data security and privacy. However, WhatsApp has said that the messages sent on its platform are completely confidential and WhatsApp or Facebook cannot see private messages sent from its platform.
Prasad said, “My department is working on this issue, and being the deciding authority, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on it.” But, I would like to say one thing very clearly. Be it WhatsApp, Facebook, or any digital platform… you are free to do business in India, but do so without infringing on the rights of Indians working here.”
He said that the integrity of personal communication needs to be maintained. Prasad said, “Given that my department is working on it, I have only talked about the basic principles. I have to wait for it.” Asked about the involvement of Chinese companies to introduce their products in India, Prasad said it would not be appropriate for them to name any country other than mentioning general policy initiatives.
He said, “Yes, we banned the app, because the issue was data privacy, the issue was national security, the issue was national sovereignty. Therefore any companies will also be considered from the perspective of national security, whether it is private or government.”
He said that the data should be obtained by consent, it should be used for the same work for which it is submitted. Has been done, and proper data security and correctness should be ensured. He said that India has billions of data with a population of 1.3 billion people and we will never compromise on our digital sovereignty.
Prasad said, “I want India to become a major center of the data economy in future. When I talk about the data economy, I mean the processing of data and data innovation. India has a huge potential to become a data refinery… Therefore, India should prosper by developing the entire ecosystem of the data economy.” He further added, “The world is waiting for our data law, which we are going to get very soon.”
