WhatsApp Refrains from Enforcing its New Privacy Policy in India

After the Indian government intervened in WhatsApp’s new policy, the company withdrew from its initial statement of limiting features if a user had not accepted its new privacy policy.

WhatsApp said it would continue reminding users about the new policy but won’t delete their account or limit any features. The company will continue doing so till India’s Personal Data Protection (PDP) bill comes into effect. The Bill has been under discussion with a Parliamentary Committee and has been expected for over two years.

We have responded to the Government of India’s letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains our highest priority. As a reminder, the recent update does not change the privacy of people’s personal messages. Its purpose is to provide additional information about how people can interact with businesses if they choose to do so.

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 as well as when people choose to use relevant optional features, like communicating with a business that is receiving support from Facebook.

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

While WhatsApp is not enforcing its new policy in India, in other parts of the world, it has already started implementing its new privacy policy under which the company could share personal information with its parent company (Facebook) for marketing purposes.