City
Epaper

Zuckerberg defends WhatsApp privacy policy amid India backlash

By IANS | Updated: January 28, 2021 11:05 IST

New Delhi, Jan 28 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended the upcoming WhatsApp privacy policy that has witnessed ...

Open in App

New Delhi, Jan 28 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended the upcoming WhatsApp privacy policy that has witnessed a massive backlash in India, saying that the update does not change the privacy of anyone's messages with friends and family.

The WhatsApp policy has now been put on hold till May 15. It aims to share commercial user data with parent Facebook. The Indian government has also written a letter to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart to withdraw the policy.

In a quarterly earnings call with analysts on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that the company has moved the date of this update back to give everyone time to understand what the update means.

"All of these messages are end-to-end encrypted, which means we can't see or hear what you say and we never will, unless the person that you message chooses to share it and business messages will only be hosted on our infrastructure if the business chooses to do so," Zuckerberg said.

More than 175 million people message WhatsApp Business accounts every day.

"We are building new features to make it even easier to transact with businesses in the app," the Facebook CEO added.

"We're building tools to let businesses store and manage their WhatsApp chats using our secure hosting infrastructure if they would like and we're in the process of updating WhatsApp's privacy policy in terms of service to reflect these optional experiences".

Raising concerns over the WhatsApp privacy policy, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has asked the messaging platform to withdraw the update.

In its strongly worded letter to Cathcart, the ministry has slammed the platform's "all or nothing" approach. The letter noted that the proposed changes to the privacy policy raise "grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens."

The matter is also under discussion at the Delhi High Court.

On interoperability between Messenger and WhatsApp, he said that the biggest difference between the two apps is obviously the connection to Facebook and the kind of same identity and graph that you use on Facebook comes with you to Messenger.

"So even if you can send messages across the different apps and there is more interoperability and we bring the same world-class privacy features to both, I think that, that will still make the apps feel fairly distinct," Zuckerberg explained.

( With inputs from IANS )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Tags: Facebook MessengerindiaNew DelhiMark ZuckerbergFacebookWill CathcartThe new delhi municipal councilDelhi south-westFacebook connectivityIndiUk-india
Open in App

Related Stories

MumbaiUniversity of Bristol Chooses Mumbai for Its First Overseas Campus, Set to Open in September 2026

NationalRaksha Bandhan 2025: Now You Can Send a Rakhi to Your Brother in India Post's Waterproof Envelope — Here's How to Track Your Parcel

NationalGold in Dubai Cheaper Than India: Pricing, Rules, and Import Limits Explained

MumbaiMumbai: Uttarakhand Woman Sexually Assaulted in Andheri Hotel by Facebook Friend; Accused Arrested

NationalIndia Spends ₹1.38 Lakh Crore Annually on Edible Oil Imports

Technology Realted Stories

TechnologySouth Korean President Lee calls for measures to curb fake news on YouTube

TechnologyDPIIT ieam visits Bengaluru to boost IoT and Deep-Tech innovation

TechnologyIndia's smartphone exports hit record $7.72 billion in Q1FY26, Apple leads with $6 billion

TechnologyIndia’s chip market poised to scale $110 billion by 2030

TechnologyQ1 Earnings Review: Brokerages give mixed outlook, earnings downgrade ratio drops