WHATSAPP TO INITIATE AN EXERCISE OF PUBLIC OUTREACH TO PUSH POLICY
WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service provider, has agreed to initiate a public outreach exercise to explain to consumers its contentious privacy policy, explaining in more depth what this entails, but apparently choosing to proceed with a strategy that the Indian government has asked the company to abandon.
The move relates to the decision of the company to implement a new privacy policy, which was under fire by critics who said it allowed WhatsApp to share more information with its Facebook parent without giving users the chance to opt out of it.
The business said it would now simplify the change in a blog post published early on Friday to help people understand the complexities of the new policy. We have been dwelling on what we should have done here differently. We want everyone to recognize our history of defending end-to-end encryption and trust that we are committed to preserving the privacy and protection of people.
In order to try to answer the concerns we are hearing, we have also provided more detail. Eventually, we will begin to remind individuals to check and approve these changes in order to continue using WhatsApp,” the company said, indicating that it planned to continue enforcing the policy, which was postponed until May 15.
In January, the organization held back the enforcement of the policy after an uproar. As per the new policy, WhatsApp said it would share some information with its parent company Facebook about users’ interactions with business accounts, and that accepting these conditions was necessary in order to use the application.
On January 19, the ministry wrote to CEO Will Cathcart of WhatsApp expressing “strong concerns” about this and asked the company to roll it back. The Supreme Court also issued a notice to WhatsApp earlier this week, asking it to clarify its plans, noting that Indians respect their privacy very highly.
On Thursday, a Meity official told HT that WhatsApp has not formally communicated to the government whether the new policy will go ahead. “After it examines the matter, the ministry will respond.” The firm has said that banner pop-ups on the app will now be presented to guide users around the policy.
In its letter of 19 January, the government reminded WhatsApp of “respecting Indian users’ information privacy and data security” and pressed it on whether there were separate rules for Indian users and those for other countries.
India has the same policy as all countries except the European Union region, where it needs to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, a person familiar with WhatsApp’s policy said.
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