The newly proposed privacy policy has brought Facebook owned WhatsApp into limelight. Now, The Indian Government has asked this Instant messaging service to reconsider its proposed privacy policy. The Minister of State for IT and Communication has asked WhatsApp to make changes in it’s privacy policy. This information is being shared by Sanjay Dhotre, Ministry of State for IT and Communications, in Lok Sabha.
He also gives a written reply in Lok Sabha. This reply states that Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is aware of the WhatsApp’s announcement about it’s new privacy policy for Indian users. To protect the privacy of Indian users, MeitY has asked WhatsApp to reconsider and review it’s proposed privacy policy. The Ministry has also asked WhatsApp to give a proper explanation to this subject of matter. Also Read: WhatsApp stops support for all devices running iOS 9
WhatsApp New Privacy Policy:
To recall, Earlier this year, WhatsApp has introduce it’s new privacy policy. For this WhatsApp New privacy policy The instant messaging service asks it’s user base to accept their policies to access the service in future. However, Later WhatsApp rescheduled the deadline for accepting the policy from February 8th to May 15th. Additionally, All this rescheduling happens because of a massive surge in global criticism of WhatsApp over it’s new policy changes. However, Later the instant messaging company released a public statement. The instant messaging service states that the delay was announce to clear up any misinformation. They added that many misinformation has been floating around user privacy and security.
However, even later, WhatsApp issues multiple statement regarding private message issue and other privacy policy concerns. The company released statements stating that they will not see the private messages exchanged among users. Additionally, the company will not listen to their calls. With these statements, company assures that all such conversation will be end-to-end encrypted as previous. The company laid emphasis on the fact that it will only use data from the people chatting with business accounts. This data will be utilize to feed them with targeted advertisements. The company confirms that this policy will be legally binding the practice that has been used since 2016.
Indian Government writes letter to WhatsApp
All this report has been cover by PTI. According to PTI records, MeitY has sent a strongly written letter to the Will Cathcart, CEO of WhatsApp regarding changes in Privacy Policy. The subject to the letter is about the changes in privacy policy, which raised concern among the Indian citizens about the implementations of these policies. As per reports, the Government has also asked the company to reconsider it’s approach towards information privacy, freedom to choice and data security. All this information is available within PTI reports.
