Big brotherhood

It is not just Big Tech which is coveting your data; there are larger powers at play

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

TWO SEEMINGLY UNRELATED events that took place in the first week of the new year might have a critical, seminal impact on our lives if put together. One was messaging service WhatsApp asking users to agree to its privacy update, giving time till February 8 to agree to conditions that included sharing data with its parent company, Facebook, or stop using the messaging service. Though the rollout of the update was quiet, as a pop-up on the chat window, it did not go unnoticed. With one in every four Indians using the messaging service, it soon sparked off seething discontent and criticism.

The other was the BJP’s Lok Sabha member Meenakshi Lekhi announcing that the Joint Parliamentary Committee she was heading had finished its deliberations on the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP Bill) and that it was ready to be tabled in the budget session of Parliament.

The common link between the two? The vexing issue of personal data and privacy.

While WhatsApp and its alternatives became the topic of debate from Twitter trends to family conversations (many, ironically, on WhatsApp itself), the PDP Bill barely got newsprint, despite India’s chequered past in protecting data privacy. The bill itself has been shifting form, reach and substance right through. As Lekhi hinted a week ago, the very name of the bill is to be changed, besides 89 other changes, one new clause and two new amendments.

But, is the indignant Indian WhatsApp user missing the forest for the trees?

The new terms of service integrate WhatsApp with Facebook, though the company claims only conversations with business accounts will be impacted. “Messages between loved ones and friends remain encrypted. That’s not changing,” reiterated WhatsApp’s global head Will Cathcart.