Grave concerns, discriminatory towards Indians: What Centre said in its letter to WhatsApp

The Centre has written to WhatsApp’s chief executive officer Will Cathcart asking the company to withdraw the latest changes announced to the terms of service and privacy policy of the messaging application. The company had announced the changes in January and had asked users to agree to the terms before February 8, 2021, to continue the usage of their services.

WhatsApp has said that they would share the metadata of the chats of business accounts with other Facebook-owned companies after the new policy. However, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY) had flagged serious information security concerns about the new update.

Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said his ministry has been working on the matter. “You are free to do business in India but do it in a manner without impinging upon the rights of Indians who operate there,” he said, according to a news report by PTI.