The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered its investigation arm, director general (DG) to conduct a detailed investigation into WhatsApp's newly updated privacy policy and terms of service and submit a report within 60 days.
The order is based on prima facie finding that WhatsApp contravened the provisions of the competition law through its "exploitative and exclusionary conduct" in the pretense of the policy update. It comes after the commission took into consideration the media reports and the potential impact of the policy and terms for WhatsApp users and the market.
The regulator said that a thorough investigation is required to ascertain the full extent, scope and impact of the data sharing through involuntary consent of users.
Key Highlights
• The Competition Commission of India noted that WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy and terms of service, which the users had to mandatorily accept in their entirety.
• The Commission stated that the 'take-it-or-leave-it nature of privacy policy and terms of service of WhatsApp and the information sharing stipulations, call for a detailed investigation, especially keeping in mind the market power enjoyed by WhatsApp.
• WhatsApp claims that its 2021 update does not expand its ability to share data with Facebook and it, in fact, intends to provide users with further transparency about how WhatsApp collects, uses and shares data.
• The Competition Commission of India said that it would verify such claims as well during the investigation conducted by the director general.
• The regulator stated that the users have a right to be informed regarding the extent, scope and the specific purpose of sharing of their personalised date by WhatsApp with other Facebook companies.
• It noted that many of the information categories described in the terms of service of the updated privacy policy of Whatsapp were too broad, vague and unintelligible.
• It added saying that such vagueness and incomplete disclosures hide the actual data cost that a user incurs for availing the services of WhatsApp.
• The regulator also noted that the policy does not make it clear whether the historical data of users would also be shared with Facebook companies or whether data of those WhatsApp users who are not present on other Facebook apps will be shared.
• The regulator further stated that there is no justifiable reason as to why users should not have any say over such cross-product processing of their data through voluntary consent. It also noted that the WhatsApp users have not been given the choice to object or opt-out of specific data sharing terms, which is unfair and unreasonable.
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