The list of users, organizations and government agencies unhappy with the recent changes to WhatsApp's privacy policies keeps growing as the Delhi High Court in India recently ordered the Facebook-owned messaging company to delete data from user's who opted out. However, it looks like WhatsApp will continue on with their new plan despite this.
Join us after the break for the details.
Several weeks ago, WhatsApp announced that it would start sharing some data about its users to parent company Facebook as a way to streamline services, reduce spam, and allow Facebook to better target each user with relevant ads. While WhatsApp itself would remain ad-free, a huge number of users have been upset with this change as one of the defining features of the popular messaging app was its commitment to privacy and end-to-end encryption (it's important to note that actual message content remains encrypted and not shared).
WhatsApp has a considerable user base in India with over 100 million active users per month. With that in mind, it's not much of a surprise that last week the Delhi High Court issued an order for WhatsApp to delete user data for those who opted out of the new policies prior to September 25 (when it came into effect). The basis for this order comes from the concern that the sharing of data to Facebook is a violation of the privacy of its users and if someone decided to opt out of these new changes, then their information should be removed from WhatsApp's servers to make certain it will never be shared. WhatsApp initiated these policy changes automatically, so if a user wants to opt out they have to do so manually.
The big conflict now is that WhatsApp released a statement saying they will continue as planned with sharing information to Facebook and “the ruling has no impact on the planned policy and terms of service updates,” according to spokesperson Anne Yeh. What's important to note here, is that if a user chooses to opt out of information sharing, they should be able to rest assured that their privacy will be honored and nothing will be shared with Facebook. The problem is that WhatsApp has come under fire for a lack of transparency, such as being investigated by Britain's Information Commission's Office, so there is a still a worry about the privacy of user data even for those who've chosen not to share it.
It is unclear how this story will develop and what additional steps the Delhi High Court could take to enforce their order (short of banning usage of the app in India, which seems very unlikely). We will certainly be looking out for any updates and it seems clear that this issue may continue for a long time.
Source: Mashable
