Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Monday stated that it had advised the Indian authorities that the privateness of customers was its highest precedence after the nation’s expertise ministry raised questions concerning the messaging app’s new privateness coverage.
India’s expertise ministry requested WhatsApp in a May 18 letter to withdraw its up to date privateness coverage, which got here into impact on May 15, and in addition stated the federal government might take authorized motion in opposition to the corporate.
“We have responded to the Government of India’s letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains our highest priority,” the corporate stated in an announcement on Monday. WhatsApp additionally stated its replace didn’t change the privateness of peoples’ private messages.
WhatsApp earlier this 12 months stated customers must overview its up to date phrases by February 8 however delayed the rollout of recent enterprise options to mid-May following a world person backlash over the corporate’s data-sharing practices.
“We will not limit the functionality of how WhatsApp works in the coming weeks. Instead, we will continue to remind users from time to time about the update,” the WhatsApp assertion stated.
With greater than 500 million folks utilizing its companies, India is WhatsApp’s greatest market and the corporate has huge growth plans within the nation.
WhatsApp’s new privateness coverage, which permits it to share restricted person knowledge with Facebook and its group firms, has led to at the very least one authorized battle in India, whereas the anti-trust regulator has additionally ordered an investigation.
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