WHATSAPP NEW PRIVACY POLICY AND THE ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH IT
Privacy policy of the Whatsapp:
In January 2021, Whatsapp came up with its new privacy policy in which registered users had to agree to allow it to share some user data which includes chats with business accounts, payments and transactions etc. with parent Facebook and other group firms. This resulted in an opposition from the consumers and global community.
Present Issues:
In earlier whatsapp policy users had the discretion to opt to give/not give its data to other companies, however, the new policy takes away this discretion and makes it mandatory for users to surrender its data.
Whatsapp is the dominant messaging application in India, and the “take it or leave it” nature of policy is a violation of individual right of privacy.
Further this data will be used by facebook and other companies for the purpose of business development and marketing, which in turn will create an uncompetitive market environment and will give facebook an competitive edge.
As per the competition commission of India, users are the owners of their personalised data and thus are entitled to be informed about the extent, scope and precise purpose of sharing of such data by WhatsApp with other Facebook companies, however the present policy is very vague on this aspect.
Competition commission of India had ordered a probe into the privacy policy of Whatsapp while the matter was subjudice. The whatsapp has now questioned this move of the CCI in court, however, the court has held the action as valid.