Yesterday we reported that apparently WhatsApp said that they has no plans on complying with India’s high courts regarding the deleting of user data that they would be sharing with Facebook. Turns out there was some miscommunication because WhatsApp has since released a new statement which basically says that they will be complying.
In a statement made by a WhatsApp spokesperson, “WhatsApp will comply with the order from the Delhi High Court. We plan to proceed with the privacy policy and terms update in accordance with the Court’s order. The Court’s emphasis on the importance of user choice and consent is encouraging.”
For those unfamiliar, WhatsApp recently introduced a controversial policy in which they said that they would be sharing user information with Facebook (who owns them) unless users opt out of it. The high courts in India stated that they will not allow this and ordered the company to delete the data of users they have collected and who have opted out of this policy.
However India isn’t alone in their unhappiness regarding this policy. Recently Germany also asked WhatsApp to stop sharing and to delete user data, although in Germany’s case, it seems that WhatsApp plans on appealing the order. However this case in India is rather promising as it could act as a precedent in future cases.