The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered Meta to stop using data WhatsApp user data for advertising purposes. The CCI has also fined the Zuckerberg-owned company $25.4 million for failing to comply with orders that date back to 2021. Here are the details of the disputes between the Government of India and Meta.
Indian Government Hits Meta’s Data Hungry Practices
Meta has been notorious for years for its not-so-user-friendly data-sharing policies. Its struggle with the Indian Government started in 2021. Around three years ago, WhatsApp enforced a new privacy policy under which the instant messaging app could use and share personal user data with its parent company Meta.
The policy enabled WhatsApp and Meta to use this data for targeted advertising, which was disguised as a move to improve end-user experience. While this is not something new coming from Meta, the biggest problem was WhatsApp did not provide an option to opt out of this process. Hence, users had to choose between sharing their personal information, such as contact details, call logs, etc. or not using WhatsApp at all.
Hence, the Government of India started an investigation into the matter. The CCI was involved shortly, and it was found that Meta’s new data-sharing practices were gatekeeping other advertising players from entering the digital marketing space.
The CCI mentioned that the larger user base of 450 million WhatsApp users in India gave Meta an unfair advantage over the competition among advertising agents. Hence, WhatsApp was ordered to stop sharing any personal user data with Meta or any other company. However, Meta did not comply with the orders properly. As a result, the CCI has fined Meta $25.4 million (Rs 215 crores).
The CCI also ordered Meta and WhatsApp to disclose a detailed explanation of what type of data was shared and for what purpose. The platform should also provide an option to opt out of these data-sharing policies. Meta has not responded to these orders yet.
It is worth noting that WhatsApp has claimed itself to be end-to-end encrypted. Hence, the data shared with Meta only included information like contact details, call logs, the amount of data used by the user, and similar metrics. Private info from chats, groups, or other in-app messaging could not be used or accessed by the company due to encryptions. For now, WhatsApp users can use the app without worrying about the company reading their private chats.
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