All section Close
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad. Image Credits: India Today
Union IT Ministry To Examine New WhatsApp Privacy Policy That Would Share Users' Data With Facebook
Writer: Deep Prakash
A film and theatre enthusiast. Love to read history and political books. Acting and cinematography is what he loves. Love to report on current trending issues and political happenings.
Delhi, 14 Jan 2021 10:31 AM GMT | Updated 14 Jan 2021 10:35 AM GMT
Editor : Shubhendu Deshmukh |
Shubhendu, the quint essential news junky, the man who loves science and politics in equal measure and offers the complete contrast to it by being a fan of urdu poetry as well.
Creatives : Abhishek M
" An engineer by profession, Abhishek is the creative producer of the team, graphic designing is his passion and travelling his get away. In more ways than one, he makes the content visually appealing."
The new policy gives the company the right to share users' data like location, contact list, phone numbers, IP address, and even the battery level and signal strength of your smartphone with Facebook.
The Indian government has started an inspection over the Whastapp new update asking users to agree with the new privacy policy by February 8 or stop using WhatsApp.
The authorities are keeping an eye over the latest update of Whatsapp, whose new policy involves sharing data with Facebook.
The update gives the company the right to share specific data of users like location, contact list, phone numbers, IP address, and even the battery level of your smartphone with Facebook.
Reportedly, without any data protection law in the country, there is a vacuum created in the data protection space, which is a main concern of the Indian government. However, a personal data protection bill presented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in the Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019, is still pending.
"Also, the privacy update sought by WhatsApp in user agreement with the European Union is seen as lenient while in India it is wide-ranging and may have terms that may potentially harm user privacy," an official told The Times of India.
After the WhatsApp rolled out its new policy, technocrats, billionaires, and several ethical hackers have raised red flags. Tech magnate Elon Musk in a tweet had endorsed messaging app Signal over WhatsApp citing Facebook'sFacebook's poor track record in handling user data. Several users have also started using Telegram.
The updated Whatsapp policy's current issue is being discussed at the highest level of IT Ministry after which any action or step is expected on the matter.
In between all this, Telegram and Signal were the most downloaded social chatting app globally as the user looked for alternatives to Facebook-owned Whastapp over the concern of their new privacy policy.
Also Read: WhatsApp's Double Standards On Privacy Policy For India, Europe Raise Eyebrows
Must Reads
We are an independent and public-spirited digital media platform for Indian millennials. We report news and issues that matter as well as give you the opportunity to take action.
