Government of India & WhatsApp - privacy issues
Government of India & WhatsApp - privacy issues
Competition of commission of India files case on WhatsApp citing changes made to it's Privacy Policy. WhatsApp files case against Union govt. of India citing 'Traceability' provision in IT Rules.
WhatsApp's Privacy Policy changes are for business and profit. Union govt. of India's rules are for more control over the right to expression and to suppress dissent and criticism. We, users and citizens, are struck between them.
Indian here. And difference. WhatsApp is not undermining privacy or security, but anonymity. There was no anonymity in the first place with phone number requirement, but what is happening here is harvesting of extra metadata (not chat metadata which was already used).
Indian Government, on the other hand, is run by a nationalist fascist party BJP, that supports race supremacy of upper caste Hindus (20-30% people). This is easily relatable to Nazi Germany, with the sane actions repeated. Detention camps are almost ready for the Bangladesh immigrants.
What this government wants is all messages to be hashable, to identify the originator of any message, but that breaks E2EE. And with the IT (Intermediary) Rules, 2021, they are acting forcefully as the snooping intermediary for any Indian group or person publishing any content with a subscriber audience bigger than 50 lakh or 5 million people.