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The central government has urged Delhi HC to restrain WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service, according to a tweet from ANI.
The Indian government had also asked Facebook-owned messaging platform Whatsapp to review the new proposed privacy policy changes, Minister of State for IT and Communications Sanjay Dhotre informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The platform was subject to criticism all over the world due to the new privacy policy. The concerns that WhatsApp planned to share data with its parent company Facebook led to various allegations on the platform.
WhatsApp, on its part, has maintained that messages on the platform are end-to-end encrypted and that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see the private messages on WhatsApp’s platform.
In a reply to Lok Sabha, Dhotre stated, “Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) took cognizance of the WhatsApp announcement of its new Privacy Policy stated to be applicable to Indian users. To safeguard the interest of Indian users, Meity has asked WhatsApp to review the proposed privacy policy changes and also to explain the rationale of the same.”
The instant messaging application had initially introduced a deadline for 8 January but the company had to delay it further in view of growing conflict in various parts of the globe. WhatsApp postponed the deadline to 15 May to provide more time for users to read up about the new policy and accordingly accept or reject the new policy.
Despite the delay, users still have to accept the new privacy policy or ultimately stop using the instant messaging application.
The instant messaging application has reassured that it is building new ways to chat or shop with a business on WhatsApp that are entirely optional. Personal messages will remain end-to-end encrypted, so WhatsApp can’t read or listen to them.
The application uses the Status feature to share their values and updates directly within WhatsApp.
The instant messaging application, In the coming weeks, will display a banner in WhatsApp providing more information that people can read at their own pace.
The banner will include more information to try and address concerns that users have been raising.
WhatsApp claims that in order to keep the app free for users, they charge businesses to provide customer service on WhatsApp.
The app also tried to clear the air with their data-sharing model with Facebook. The messaging application uses some shopping features which it claims involves Facebook. This is done so that businesses can manage their inventory across apps.
In future, WhatsApp will display more information directly within the application so users can choose if they want to engage with businesses, or not.
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