Why Has The CCI Imposed Heft Penalty On WhatsApp Over Data Privacy Violation?

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta for its anti-competitive practices in relation to 2021 Privacy Policy Update, the CCI said in a press release. 

Why Was The Fine Imposed?

The Commission fined Meta  for abusing its ‘dominant position’ in the market, and promoting anti-competitive practices. “Sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta companies… for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp service shall not be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp Service in India,” the CCI stated.

What Are The Details

In this notification the commission spoke about two markets in India, one for OTT messaging, and other for online display of advisement. Meta and WhatsApp are leading service providers for both these services. 

In 2021 WhatsApp made sharing of data with Meta mandatory for all users, and users had no choice but to comply if they wanted to use the platform. This is in violation of 2021 Privacy Policy Update. 

The Commission also noted that mandatory sharing of data with Meta creates entry barrier for competitors, and also causes an entry barrier entry for advertisers.

What's Next?

WhatsApp is instructed by CCI not to share their data with anyone except Meta for the next five years. With respect to sharing data of Whatsapp users, the CCI has asked WhatsApp to share a detailed explanation of user data shared with other Meta companies or products, linking each kind of data with its intended use.

What should users look out for?

If data is to be shared with other Meta companies, it has to be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp services in India. If users will be provided an option to opt out option prominently via a notification. The option to modify data sharing will be available via a prominent setting on the WhatsApp application. The users should keep an eye out for these updates.

This is not the first time Whatsapp has been called out over data privacy issues. Earlier, Karmanya Singh and Shreya Sethi filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the 2016 privacy policy of WhatsApp. The petition voiced an urgent need to protect the data of citizens who use applications like Whatsapp.

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