CCI imposes a fine of Rs 213 Crore on Meta; Firm plans to appeal the decision
After the Competition Commission imposed a fine of Rs 213 crore on Meta in connection with WhatsApp’s privacy policy, the company said it disagreed with the watchdog’s decision and planned to appeal. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday asked WhatsApp not to share user data with other Meta-owned applications for advertising purposes for a period of five years.
India’s competition watchdog has fined the social media giant Rs 213.14 crore for unfair dealing in relation to the WhatsApp privacy policy update made in 2021.
In addition, the competition watchdog has ordered Meta to stop anti-competitive practices.
Meta and WhatsApp have also been asked to implement certain behavioral remedies within a specified timeline to address the anti-competitive issues, according to a CCI order.
A spokesperson for Meta said the company disagrees with the CCI’s decision and plans to appeal.
“As a reminder, the 2021 update did not change the privacy of people’s personal messages and was offered as a choice to users at the time. We also made sure that no one would have their account deleted or lose WhatsApp service functionality because of this update. ”, said the Meta spokesperson.
Meta further said that the update was about introducing optional business features on WhatsApp, and brought more transparency around data collection and use.
The Meta spokesperson added that WhatsApp has since been incredibly valuable to people and businesses, enabling organizations and government agencies to deliver citizen services through COVID and beyond, and support small businesses to boost the Indian economy.
“WhatsApp can do all this because it offers services powered by Meta. We are committed to finding a path forward that allows us to continue delivering the experiences people and businesses have come to expect,” the Meta spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, CCI has banned WhatsApp from sharing data collected on its platform with other Meta companies or Meta companies’ products for advertising purposes for five years.
On sharing WhatsApp user data for purposes other than advertising, the regulator said WhatsApp’s policy should include a detailed explanation of the user data shared with other Meta Companies or Meta Company products.
“These explanations should specify the purpose of data sharing, linking each type of data to its corresponding purpose,” the report said.
The watchdog also said that sharing user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta Companies or Meta Companies’ products for purposes other than providing WhatsApp services should not be a condition for users to access the WhatsApp service in India .
Regarding the sharing of WhatsApp user data for purposes other than providing WhatsApp services, CCI said that all users in India (including users who have accepted the 2021 update) will be given the choice to prominently control the sharing of such data via an opt-out option. via an in-app notification.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
