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  The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has once again asked WhatsApp to take back its new privacy policy, which has been in the eye of a storm since the messaging service first announced it in December. WhatsApp privacy policy According to sources, in a communication sent to WhatsApp on Tuesday, the Ministry has told the Facebook-owned company to withdraw its privacy policy, saying that the manner of introducing these changes, including those in the FAQ, undermines the sacrosanct values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users and harms the rights and interests of Indian citizens. The Ministry has also taken the same stand in the Delhi High Court, where this matter is sub-judice. The Ministry has given WhatsApp seven days to respond to their letter, and "if no satisfactory response is received, necessary steps in consonance with law will be taken". Click Here

  The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday ordered a probe into the updated privacy policy of WhatsApp for breaching the antitrust law. CCI said that with no fear of erosion of its userbase, Facebook-owned WhatsApp was in a position to compromise quality in terms of protection of individualised data. whatsapp privacy case “CCI is of prima facie opinion that the ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ nature of privacy policy and terms of service of WhatsApp and the information-sharing stipulations mentioned therein, merit a detailed investigation in view of the market position and market power enjoyed by WhatsApp,” stated the CCI order. The investigation comes against the backdrop of WhatsApp’s proposal to update its privacy policy in late December/early January. The update was worded in a way that led users to believe their information was unsafe and not end-to-end encrypted, prompting many to leave the messaging platform. Click Here

The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the new privacy policy of instant messaging platform WhatsApp. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and WhatsApp seeking their stand on the plea by March. WhatsApp Privacy policy The petitioners, Seema Singh, Meghan Singh and Vikram Singh, have contended that the new privacy policy indicates the "fissures" in Indian data protection and privacy laws. Click Here

  WhatsApp users received an in-app notification on Wednesday asking them to either accept the changes in its Terms of Service and privacy policy by February 8 or their accounts will be deleted Millions of Indian users received an in-app notification from  WhatsApp  as part of an upcoming global roll-out for over 2 billion users, asking them to either accept the changes in its Terms of Service and privacy policy by February 8 or their accounts will be deleted. The in-app notification did not elicit much details but clicking on the links clearly mentioned the key changes in how WhatsApp will collect and process users' information going forward, and the partnership with Facebook, its parent company, as part of a larger unification drive between the family of apps. Read Full Article Here