“The draft report on pre-packaged insolvency is a step in the right direction but falls short of clear criteria on many vital concepts. For instance, the select committee has suggested that the trigger for the initiation of a pre-pack scheme should occur on subjective criteria such as ‘covid defaults’ or ‘pre-default stress’. While it is clear that a successful pre-pack insolvency scheme will need to attract debtors to resolve impending credit issues even before a default has occurred, terms such as above need definitional precision for any uptake by prospective users.”
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Changes such as storing of undelivered messages and media files on its servers may be a concern for users, although these will be stored in encrypted form. The major takeaway is that WhatsApp is letting users know about how it shares data with businesses that use WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook. So in terms of user rights, we are better informed about WhatsApp’s ongoing practices. While this is a global update, there are some items which differ for the EU because the privacy law there is significantly different. Interestingly, users have no option but to accept the Privacy Policy as it is, or stop using the app altogether. Most global privacy laws require companies to take staggered consent based on the type of data they are collecting. Take the example of cookies, this Privacy Policies does not give you the option of disallowing cookies being placed on your device - something which you must have seen on many websites. This is a clear confirmation that data about you that is collected on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is fast becoming one dataset. This Privacy Policy is a good insight into how WhatsApp will operate as we see it expand further into payments, e-commerce, and even insurance going forward. We find repeated mention of user data being shared for marketing and survey purposes, over and above the many reminders that Facebook companies also have access to your information. As WhatsApp’s operations grow, all of these interlinkages will become more relevant and data from one type of service will feed into another, as we have already been noticing. This policy will also have to be re-looked after the Personal Data Protection Bill is implemented, which is aligned to global regulations in many respects.
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WhatsApp has been the most chosen messaging platform in India, largely for two reasons, first – it’s end-to-end encryption model, and second - it’s a free app with no advertisements. But, the company’s recent decision to share the users information and data with their parent company Facebook and other third-parties can be seen in outright conflict with their earlier policy stand that ‘Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA’. They fail to understand, that why would any user consent to share his chat and other critical information with any third party, to his detriment. It has become even more alarming, since now the platform has introduced an in-app payment option as well, which means giving our banking and financial information to WhatsApp, with a rider that it can also be shared with third parties. Is this in contravention of any of the global consumer privacy and data policy regulations? Triggering from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica episode to Facebook’s recent Privacy Tracking Lawsuit in the United Sates, it can be deduced that the company has used the user data towards unauthorized and shady activities. In this era of information age, Facebook owns four of the most downloaded apps of the decade, i.e. – Facebook’s own app, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. Any steps towards compromising with the user data (of which, recent WhatsApp privacy policy update is a leading example) will lead to Facebook abusing it’s dominant position. Very recently, an anti-trust case has been opened up against Facebook for abusing its dominance in the digital marketplace and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. Further, an Indian Parliamentary panel has also been set up since there were complaints of political bias, content regulation and data safety over it’s platform, to which Facebook is yet to answer. Hence, it’s not only the recent WhatsApp update that’s worrisome, but Facebook’s history with user’s privacy. . In June of 2020, Apple released their new privacy labels rules, through which, developers were required to disclose what all kinds of data they were collecting through any app. Not so surprising, WhatsApp and Facebook climbed to top of the list collecting most information, while apps like Signal and iMessage collected least. On top of it, WhatsApp recent decision to give the users one-month ultimatum to either accept their new policy terms or quit the platform has set the alarm bell ringing. Hence, it can be presumed if WhatsApp doesn’t amend their policy update soon, people will be forced to move to other more secured platforms.
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