Indian Government Asks WhatsApp To Remove New Privacy Policy Guidelines: Will WhatsApp Comply?

WhatsApp created a stir amongst its current and potential user base with the announcement of a new privacy policy. The company has been taking all the backlash ever since it revealed that a certain set of user data will be shared with its parent company Facebook. Earlier the brand had set a deadline of February 8 for the users to agree to the freshly stated privacy policy.

The users have started moving to other platforms such as Signal and Telegram. Amongst the rising concern the Indian smartphone users, the Indian government has stepped in. The government has released a fresh advisory to the Facebook-owned messaging platform where these concerns are asked to be addressed.

Has Indian Government Asked WhatsApp To Remove Privacy Policy In India?

While WhatsApp has announced it will postpone the deadline to accept the new privacy policy to May 15, the Indian government has asked the company to remove the same from the country. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has made a request to the WhatsApp CEO to not make any such proposed changes to the privacy policy for its application usage in India.

Additionally, the MEITY letter written to WhatsApp seeks information as to what kind of user data will be shared with Facebook. Also, the Indian government has pointed that the privacy policy remains unchanged or the European Union, and hence the differential treatment to the country remains questionable.

It seems that the Indian government is keeping a close eye on this WhatsApp fiasco. The government has been taking this matter seriously for a long now. We have seen the government imposing a ban on smartphone applications for China-links that were considered a threat to privacy. WhatsApp is yet to respond to the situation and it remains to be seen what solution the Indian government brings for this situation.