After WhatsApp faced intense backlash across the globe over its recent privacy policy changes, the messaging platform is now facing a legal complaint against it in one of its largest markets, India.
According to a Gadgets360 report, the social media giant has a petition filed against it in an Indian court earlier this week. This arrives as the first legal challenge that the company is facing for its recent privacy policy updates. For those unaware, WhatsApp rolled out an update that made changes to the application’s privacy policies. These changes gave the company the right to share some of the users’ data, like phone number and location, with its parent company Facebook, and its other platforms, Instagram, and Messenger.
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This, in turn, led to the company facing intense backlash in regions India, which is its largest market, with over 400 million users. Notably, the Turkish government even launched an investigation into the messaging service after the policy changes went live. Furthermore, many people have also begun shifting to other messaging services like Signal and Telegram, which has led both apps to see millions of new downloads.
According to lawyer Chaitanya Rohilla, “It [privacy updates] virtually gives a 360-degree profile into a person’s online activity.” The petition stated that ” WhatsApp has made a mockery out of our fundamental right to privacy.” At the moment, the company has given users till the 8th of February 2021 to accept the new terms. The petition also added that “This type of arbitrary behavior and browbeating cannot be accepted in a democracy and is complete ‘ultra vires’ (beyond its powers) and against the fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution of India.”
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