CCI to issue order to WhatsApp over its privacy policy update

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is likely to issue an order to WhatsApp for violating the country's competition laws. A contentious update on WhatsApp privacy policy and service terms has attracted the wrath of the Indian watchdog.

The CCI order is believed to include a penalty, too. The messaging giant's controversial 2021 update would allow WhatsApp to share certain user data with its parent Meta Platforms which has stirred a debate.

The report of the ongoing investigation has been shared by the director general of the case with the CCI. The industry watchdog has also finalized a draft following the report. The CCI can charge up to 10 percent of the global turnover for anti-competitive practices.  

It is reported that a WhatsApp spokesperson said that the 2021 privacy policy amendment had no effect on the confidentiality of users' private chats. The spokesperson told a news source, “WhatsApp gave users the choice of accepting the Privacy Policy Update, and users who chose not to accept the update continue to use WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family without having their accounts deleted or losing functionality.”  

Notably, this comes at a time when several other countries have raised concerns about WhatsApp's privacy policy. For instance, Germany blocked Facebook's data sharing with WhatsApp in 2021.

In May 2021, a three-month ban was placed on Facebook for collecting WhatsApp user data, according to a report. Johannes Caspar, head of the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information stated, “This ruling is intended to protect the rights and freedoms of the many millions of users across Germany who give their permission to the new use and privacy policy.”

Meanwhile, WhatsApp said that this ruling is based on a misunderstanding of the purpose and effect of WhatsApp's update. Another country that imposed a fine on WhatsApp was Ireland. The Irish data protection regulator reportedly imposed a fine of $266 million in September 2021. The fine was with regards to the privacy breach of WhatsApp. Meanwhile, the social media platform highlighted that the fine was "entirely disproportionate."

A spokesperson of the company reportedly said, “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018, and the penalties are entirely disproportionate.” This comes at a time when the commission was also looking at allegations of anti-competitive practices against e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. However, the Karnataka High Court halted the CCI investigation due to a procedural error.