Indian Parliament Panel To Question Facebook On WhatsApp Policy Changes

An Indian parliamentary panel will question Facebook executives on the proposed changes to the privacy policy of its messaging app WhatsApp. The move comes just days after India¡¯s technology ministry instructed WhatsApp to withdraw these changes for its Indian user base.

Among other questions, the panel will ask Facebook the need to change WhatsApp's privacy policy as well as its impact on WhatsApp users in India, as per a source cited in a Reuters report.

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The questioning will be in response to the recently announced changes by WhatsApp with respect to its user data handling. In a clause, the company mentioned its plans on sharing some part of the data with its parent company, Facebook going forward.

The policy, however, is not applicable globally as the European users of the chat app are safe from this. Responding to the proposal by WhatsApp, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology penned a letter to the WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart wherein it called the changes unilateral and hence unfair. It then instructed the company to withdraw the proposal for its user base in the country, which is one of the largest in the world.

"Any unilateral changes to the WhatsApp Terms of Service and Privacy would not be fair and acceptable," the letter read.

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The questioning by the parliamentary panel will bring forth the reasons for the app¡¯s upcoming privacy policy that means to share limited user data with its parent firm Facebook. For now, it can be speculated that the data will eventually be used for targeted advertising on all Facebook-owned platforms.

While this data does not include the user chats or correspondence with a contact, it can include the user¡¯s phone number as well as the location at any given time. Citing privacy concerns, people have started shifting to other, more private platforms in what is now being called the biggest digital migration in human history.