Whatsapp Won’t Impose Restrictions Due To New Privacy Policy; Will Wait For Govt To Pass Law

Giving relief to its users, messaging giant WhatsApp has revealed that it will not restrict features if users don’t accept its new privacy policy. 

WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Stance

The revelation came as a response to the Indian government’s notice.

WhatsApp spokesperson said, “We have responded to the Government of India’s letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains our highest priority,” in a statement to Business Insider.

Prior to this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had sent a notice to WhatsApp last week.

In the letter, they called the Facebook-owned company’s new privacy policy “discriminatory”, “unfair” and “irresponsible”.

Further, the notice stated that in case the response is not “satisfactory”, WhatsApp could face legal action.

What Does WhatsApp Say?

Moving ahead, WhatsApp revealed that it will maintain its current stance until the upcoming Personal Data Protection (PDP) law comes into effect.

 The spokesperson mentioned that“We hope this approach reinforces the choice that all users have whether or not they want to interact with a business. We will maintain this approach until at least the forthcoming PDP law comes into effect,”.

WhatsApp Discriminating Against Indian Users

This seems to be an important development since the Indian government has accused WhatsApp of discriminating against its Indian users while the messenger has allowed those in Europe to stick to the old policy.

The Director at The Dialogue, a public policy think-tank, Kazim Rizvi said, “The sole reason this Privacy Policy update is not enforced in the EU is that they have very strict and defined laws which expressly prohibit the same,”.

This move also implies that the upcoming PDP bill is even more important.

While stressing the need for a bill that enshrines privacy into law, Rizvi said, “It is crucial the Indian Data Protection law ensures maximum privacy protection for the users while also aligning with the security and economic realities of India,”.

Whatsapp’s Next move

Presently, as we experience that WhatsApp is not enforcing its privacy policy with an iron hand.

 Now, the messenger company confirmed that it will continue to remind its users about it until they accept it.

Further adding that “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,”.

It is observed that the frequency of reminders has considerably increased over the last few weeks.

This seems to annoy many users so they may be forced to accept the new policy out of frustration.