The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Technology sent a letter to WhatsApp last month, interrogating changes the Facebook-owned messaging app had made to its privacy policy. MediaNama has obtained a copy of the letter under the RTI Act. "These changes enable WhatsApp, and other Facebook Companies, to make invasive and precise inferences about users which may not be reasonably foreseen or expected by users in the ordinary course of accessing these services," MEITY said in the letter. "Whether this will enable better provision of services to users or not is besides the point, the issue is the impact it has on informational privacy, data security and user choice." We expect that this sovereign independence of India’s distinct identity and its people must be properly respected and any unilateral changes to the WhatsApp Terms of Service and Privacy would not be fair and acceptable. In this context, the proposed changes raise grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens. Therefore, you are called upon to withdraw the proposed changes. Further, you are urged to reconsider your approach to respect the informational privacy, freedom of choice and data security of Indian citizens. — MEITY letter to WhatsApp (emphasis added) WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policy in January that led to widespread debate, as the changes amount to a deeper integration between the messaging app and Facebook's other verticals. WhatsApp has argued that user data such as chats won't be at risk, but the government took…
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