Sanctity of personal communications must be maintained: Prasad

Expressing concern over the new privacy policy of WhatsApp on sharing commercial user data with parent Facebook, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday categorically said sanctity and privilege of personal communications need to be maintained.

Responding to a question by The Indian Express Group’s executive director Anant Goenka at the 15th India Digital Summit organised by IAMAI, Prasad said all digital companies are free to operate in India but without impinging upon the rights of Indians. “This is an issue that my department is working on, and being the final authority, it will not be proper for me to make comments, except to flag one thing very clearly, be it WhatsApp, be it Facebook, be it any digital platform, you are free to do business in India but do it in a manner without impinging upon the rights of Indians who operate here,” Prasad said.