Report, WhatsApp responded on its privacy policy, said Zomato, Ola, Arogya Setu also take data: Report

WhatsApp has been surrounded by controversies for the last few months regarding its new privacy policy. Earlier this policy was to be implemented from February 8, but in view of the increasing controversy, the company postponed it for a few months. Now this policy is going to be implemented from May 15. However, a public interest litigation has been filed in the Delhi High Court against this policy of the company, on which the company had to give its reply. According to the report, in response to the petition filed in the Delhi High Court against its privacy policy update, WhatsApp has said that the policies of many internet-based apps and websites are similar to this and some companies even collect more data than this. The Facebook-owned instant messaging app has reportedly cited the privacy policies of Big Basket, Koo, Ola, Truecaller and Zomato as well as the government’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu in its affidavit.

Inc42’s Report Citing the affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court on May 5, it has been informed that in its affidavit, WhatsApp has named Big Basket, Koo, Ola, Truecaller and Zomato as well as the government’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu and US tech companies Google, Microsoft, Zoom and Republic World, which is a digital venture of Republic TV, have also been named. WhatsApp has reportedly said in the affidavit that if their new privacy policy is blocked by the court, then this decision will also affect other tech companies in the country, including companies delivering grocery and online doctor’s appointments.

It is worth noting that after the announcement of its new privacy policy, WhatsApp had made it clear that the update is mainly for business accounts using the platform. This means that once the updated privacy policy is accepted, app users’ details such as their phone numbers and transaction data will be shared with businesses. But still, WhatsApp has said that these changes “will not affect chats with anyone.

Earlier the last date for adopting this updated policy was 8th February, but later the company changed it to 15th May.