New Delhi (AFP)
The Indian government on Tuesday called on WhatsApp to withdraw planned changes to its data sharing policy, underlining concerns over security and privacy in the country over the announcement.
The update of the conditions of use of online messaging should allow advertisers to use WhatsApp to chat with their consumers and share this data with the application's parent company, Facebook, which can use it to improve its targeted advertisements.
These new rules have sparked an outcry globally, with a number of users, especially in India - the main market for WhatsApp with 400 million users - deciding to switch to competing applications, such as Signal or Telegram, fearing for the security of their personal data.
The application, which has more than two billion users worldwide, announced Friday to postpone the date of acceptance of the new rules by its users to May 15, against February 8 initially, ensuring that the deadline will be used to postpone clear what she considers to be disinformation regarding these rules.
"In view of the vastness of the user base ... the crossing of this sensitive information exposes a large part of Indian citizens to greater security risks, creating a real data vacuum," the ministry warned on Monday. of Electronics and Information Technology in a letter to the boss of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart.
A ministry official added in a statement that the government had "reminded WhatsApp to respect the privacy and data security of Indian users and asked it to withdraw its new rules."
New Delhi has also criticized a treatment that the government considers unfair to users, while Europe is exempt from a rule requiring the end of use of the application if the new conditions are not accepted.
WhatsApp has already tried to reassure its Indian customers, carrying out extensive advertising campaigns in the national press to ensure that "respect for your privacy is part of our DNA".
The company is also waging a major battle against other digital giants such as Google or the Chinese Alibaba to take a share of the rapidly growing Indian mobile payment market.
Last November, it launched WhatsApp Pay, which makes it possible to send and receive money via messaging, just a few hours after receiving authorizations from the regulator.
© 2021 AFP