New Delhi, November 19 (IANS). Chatting app WhatsApp recently received instructions from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) not to share user data on the platform with other meta products or companies for advertising purposes for 5 years. In this context, WhatsApp’s parent company Meta now says that it disagrees with the CCI’s decision and is planning to appeal.
The competition regulator, in one of its antitrust orders related to WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update, also imposed a fine of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta for abusing its dominant position.
According to the CCI order, “WhatsApp is imposing unfair terms under the 2021 Policy Update Act on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis as it subjects all users to extended data collection within the meta group without any opt-out.” obliges you to accept the terms and data sharing.”
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement to IANS, “The 2021 WhatsApp update did not make any changes to people’s personal message privacy and it was offered as an option for users at the time. We also made sure that That due to this update, no one’s account should be deleted and there should be no problem regarding WhatsApp service. The purpose of the update was to introduce alternative business facilities on WhatsApp and more about this. “The goal was to provide transparency about how we collect and use data.”
The company further said that WhatsApp provides services supported by Meta. A Meta spokesperson said, “We are committed to finding a way forward that allows us to continue to provide people and businesses the experience they expect from us.”
“We disagree with the CCI’s decision and plan to appeal,” he said.
CCI began investigating WhatsApp’s revised privacy policy in March 2021, which essentially enabled data sharing with Facebook and other companies.
Before this update, users had the option to decide whether they wanted to share their data with the company or not. WhatsApp has more than 500 million monthly active users in the country.
–IANS
SKT/AS
