A spokesperson for WhatsApp reportedly said that the 2021 privacy policy amendment had no effect on the confidentiality of users' private chats.
The Competition Commission of India might issue an order against social media platform WhatsApp over its privacy policy update. Additionally, WhatsApp might also be fined by the commission.
This is as per a report by Mint. The report indicates that WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta (formerly Facebook), violated competition law. The law was violated by abusing their dominant market position. This is with regard to a controversial privacy policy that allows WhatsApp to share certain user data with its parent company, Meta.
The director general of the case has shared the report of the ongoing investigation with the CCI. Following this, a draft order has also been finalised by the CCI. The CCI can charge up to 10 per cent of the global turnover for anti-competitive practices.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for WhatsApp reportedly said that the 2021 privacy policy amendment had no effect on the confidentiality of users' private chats.
“WhatsApp gave users the choice of accepting the Privacy Policy Update, and users who chose not to accept the update continue to use WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family without having their accounts deleted or losing functionality,”
the spokesperson told Mint.
Interestingly, this is coming at a time when several other countries have been vocal against the privacy policy of WhatsApp. For example, in 2021, Germany halted Facebook’s data sharing with WhatsApp.
Another country that imposed a fine on WhatsApp was Ireland. The Irish data protection regulator reportedly imposed a fine of $266 million in September 2021. The fine was with regards to the privacy breach of WhatsApp. Meanwhile, the social media platform highlighted that the fine was "entirely disproportionate."
Source: Outlook Business
