India fines WhatsApp $25M for forcing 2021 privacy policy update

This was possible due to the hard work of non-profit Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) organization in India. Any Indian people reading this, please donate to them to keep fighting big-tech and govt for the internet freedom.

"with the latest policy update in 2021, WhatsApp made data sharing with Meta mandatory for all users"

"Given the network effects and lack of effective alternatives, the 2021 Update forces users to comply, undermining their autonomy, and constitutes an abuse of Meta’s dominant position"

"all users in India [...] will be provided with [...] the choice to manage such data sharing by way of an opt-out option"

The background to this:

In the early 2010s Whatsapp charged a $1 per year fee, which brought in hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 2014, Facebook bought Whatsapp for $19 billion.

Before the buyout, Facebook claimed they would not be able to link Whatsapp and Facebook accounts.

After the buyout they did that, they began doing things like using location tracking in Whatsapp to allow Facebook to know where someone has been and use Whatsapp calls to allow Facebook to know more about who a person is in contact with.

Meta has been fined much more money by the EU and UK for things they have done with Whatapp.

In comparison, this $25 million fine is so tiny that they won't care about the fine at all.

India forcing them to give everyone in India an opt-out option is a worthwhile win.

I think it is a good thing that people in India will be able to use Whatapp with somewhat more privacy.