oppn parties WhatsApp Is Wrong In Asking All Users To Agree To Share Private Data

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  • Calcutta HC says Cricket Association of Bengal is not liable to pay tax on advertisement inisde Eden Gardens cricket ground as it is not a 'public place' because it does not have unrestricted access for the general public
  • Supreme Court admits a plea from a child of a single OBC mother who had applied for an OBC certificate for her son
  • Supreme Court approves applying strict preventive detention laws for 'cybercriminals'
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  • Marine insurance costs surge as the oil corridor in Strait of Homruz becomes risky due to war
  • Stocks weaken on Monday on global cues: sensex sheds 511 points to 81896 and Nifty 140 points to 24971
  • Former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi dies in London at 77. He played for India in 33 Test matches and for Bengal in domestic tournaments
  • Pant becomes the only keeper to score two centuries in the same Test in England
  • England Test: Rishabh Pant hits his second ton and KL Rahul a classy century to put India on top, England need 350 runs on the last day, with the ptich showing signs of wear and tear
  • DGCA orders an audit of the entire aviation ecosystem in the wake of recent snags in many flights after the AI Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad
  • 2 Pahalgam residents arrested by NIA for sheltering and aiding 3 terrorists who killed civilian tourists in pahalgam tell the agency that there were 3 LeT ultras from Pakistan that carried out the attack
  • India unlikely to agree to US demands for lower tariffs on agri products and GM food, trade deal faces fresh hurdles
  • Stocks likely to plummet today as traders will be worried about the effect of US strike on iran, oil price rise and possible inflation. Foreign funds may also withdraw in the volatile global situation
  • Oil prices likely to shoot up as US strikes at iran and the latter decides to close the Strait of Homruz
US President Donald Trump unilaterally announces a 'ceasefire' between Israel & Iran
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WhatsApp Is Wrong In Asking All Users To Agree To Share Private Data

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-01-18 07:45:00

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The confusion over the changes in the privacy settings of popular instant messaging app WhatsApp once again shows the urgency for a comprehensive data protection law in India. The government is not realizing the mischief that big multinational corporations in the internet space can do with consumer data. Although the government banned certain Chinese apps recently when data breach was discovered, it was a knee jerk reaction that is not going to solve the problem. Only a comprehensive data protection law on the lines of the General Data Protection Law (GDPR) of the European Union can prevent misuse of consumer data.

WhatsApp has changed its data privacy policy to allow sharing of data between the instant messaging app and its parent Facebook. Although the company has pointed out that this is applicable only for business users, it has been sending out messages to all users to accept this upgrade to its privacy policy, giving an indication that their data might also be shared. If it wanted to share the data of people or business entities using WhatsApp for commercial reasons, it could have changed the privacy policy only for them since one has to create a separate business account of the app. Suspicion about its intentions will obviously be raised if such acceptance of the changed privacy policy is across the board for all users.

To be fair to WhatsApp (as it provides free service to users), as a business entity that needs to earn money it will try to monetize its content in all possible ways. But privacy is a huge issue and Facebook knows this from the days it was drawn into the Cambridge Analytica scandal and many users left the platform fearing breach of privacy. For Facebook, the best way to get out of this mess would be to change the privacy policy and allow sharing of data only for users who register as business users in either WhatsApp or Facebook. That would be fair to both the users and the company. On the other hand, India must work to enact the Personal data Protection Bill, 2019 that has been kept on the backburner for long. That would go a long way in ensuring that companies do not play around with the personal data of users.