The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has objected the new WhatsApp privacy policy through which all kinds of personal data, payment transactions, contacts, location and other important information of a person who is using WhatsApp will be obtained by it and can be used for any purpose by WhatsApp.
CAIT in its letter to Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked the government to immediately restrain WhatsApp from implementing the new policy or put a ban on WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook.
"It reminds us of the days of East India Company who entered India to trade salt only and invade the country but at this time it is the data which is very crucial to wreck the backbone of the economy, social structure, etc. The Facebook- WhatsApp combine has shown their true colours by first facilitating the Indians to use Facebook and WhatsApp without any charge but now seeking access to data, its ultimate object seems to control trade & economy of India besides other hidden agenda," CAIT said.
Facebook has more than 200 million users in India and enabling it to access data about every user by a company can pose a serious threat to not only the economy but even to the security of the country.
Earlier, this week WhatsApp started sending an in-app notification to its users that the company is changing its privacy policies which will come in effect from February 8. The terms of new policy urge people to agree to the conditions to avail their services or else they cannot use their account.
CAIT National President B. C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal in a joint statement issued on Sunday said, "The changed privacy policy of WhatsApp is an encroachment on the privacy of an individual & runs against the fundamentals of Constitution of India and therefore the CAIT has demanded immediate intervention of the Government.”
Bhartia and Khandelwal said, "In its new privacy policy, WhatsApp is forcing the user to accept the new terms and it's a common phenomenon that most of them without reading the terms would just go ahead and accept it without realising what WhatsApp is changing under the new terms. It does not give a choice to the user to stay on the platform without accepting the revised terms which is also an encroachment on the independence of a person. How can a company operating in India force the users to accept its arbitrary and one-sided terms."
CAIT said it will be harmful if data is used by both WhatsApp and Facebook for several various purposes, including the enablement of Facebook to use data with an e-commerce portal or compromising data with various companies to earn commercial benefits, since Facebook is the parent Company of WhatsApp will get access to all the personal information.
This data mining in such a huge amount will certainly come to recognise the purchasing and spending power of the users, what they eat, the volume of requirements of various items, travels and destinations, usage of flights, railways, cab, road transport, etc.