Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg clearly hasn't learnt from Free Basics fiasco

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is in troubled waters, yet again. This time over the **WhatsApp Privacy policy** that it had once vowed to keep intact. When Facebook bought WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion, the company had ‘promised’ to protect the privacy of its users’ personal information. Similar promises came from WhatsApp’s founders. However, recently WhatsApp announced in a blogpost that it will begin sharing select data with the parent company, allowing users to interact with businesses that matter to them the most. Today, two years later, Facebook plans to cash in on the investment, with the other alternative to simply stop using WhatsApp. The  updated content policy  drew public ire across the world. Some have already voiced their decision to quit WhatsApp and try other services like Telegram. In India, the Delhi High court **issued a notice to the Centre Government** to respond to the new privacy policy updated by WhatsApp. According to a petition filed by Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi the new privacy policy threatens the privacy of WhatsApp users. They further alleged that WhatsApp, Facebook Inc and Facebook India Online Pvt Ltd ‘compromise the rights of its users’. The ruling is explained in detail here . Likewise, UK and US privacy regulators also raised concerns. UK’s data privacy regulator also said it will monitor the app to know how and what WhatsApp shares with Facebook after the privacy policy update. The US Federal Trade Commission was said to be reviewing a joint complaint from two consumer privacy groups filed claiming Facebook’s move violates federal law banning unfair and deceptive practices, according to Bloomberg. With phone numbers of WhatsApp users being shared with Facebook, would only mean more targeted ads, and this will include phone numbers of users who aren’t necessarily on Facebook. While no one really has the right to block the move, it does have to follow certain laws and guidelines. Germany has ordered Facebook to stop collecting WhatsApp data, and also delete the information it has already collected. “Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance. This has not happened,” said Commissioner Johannes Caspar. Facebook could possibly upload users’ WhatsApp contacts to Facebook, even if they’re not on the social network, and this violates German laws. Facebook also plans to appeal to court against the order. European nations are known to have strong privacy laws and have been seen clashing with Google, Facebook and others on several occasions. Germany had also fought Facebook asking the social giant that its users could use pseudo names. If you remember, back in 2014, privacy advocates had asked US regulators to halt Facebook Inc’s $19 billion acquisition of messaging service until there was a clearer understanding of how the company intends to use the personal data of WhatsApp’s then 450 million users, a number which has quickly risen to 1 billion users today. WhatsApp had a longstanding commitment (back then) to not collect user data for advertising purposes. However, it was very well known there would be no guarantee that the commitment would hold true once the service becomes part of Facebook, explained the filing to the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, both non-profit groups. That’s exactly what’s happening today, as most of the fears come true. And, this isn’t first time that Zuckerberg and Facebook have been in troubled waters. Interestingly, it hasn’t learnt from past mistakes aka Free Basics or Internet.org or what we call violating the principles of net neutrality. The packaging and repackaging of Internet.org as Free Basics, hordes of advertising, fooling users into signing petitions in support of Free Basics, and an attempt to introduce Internet as Facebook , Marc Andreessen’s colonialism remark and several other unpleasant instances left us with a bitter sour taste. Then on, the company has tried to put forth some great initiatives, but the past made us skeptical . However, it did work to some extent. And, now with the policy change, it gets clearer why there is a trust deficit with Facebook. In the bid to make more bucks and continue on another profitable quarter, its WhatsApp data harvesting plan may go wrong with the users. It wasn’t too long ago, that Facebook’s Free Basics was booted out of India, and also other countries. It is to be seen if public ire could make Facebook change its mind over the privacy policy. WhatsApp is among the most preferred messaging services used in India. It waits to be seen if that will remain the case once Facebook goes ahead with its plan regarding WhatsApp data usage.