Probe ordered into WhatsApp’s new privacy policy

India’s competition watchdog has ordered a probe into a WhatsApp privacy policy update, saying the Facebook Inc-owned messaging service had breached antitrust laws, Reuters reported.

The update announced in January, which will take effect in May, allows WhatsApp to share some user data with Facebook and its units, prompting a global backlash including in India, its biggest market with more than 500 million users, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, the 21-page antitrust order came as WhatsApp is expanding its digital payment services to millions of Indians.

The Competition Commission of India said WhatsApp had violated competition laws “through its exploitative and exclusionary conduct … in the garb of policy update.”

It ordered its investigation unit to launch a probe and submit a report within 60 days. Such probes typically take several months.

WhatsApp’s sharing of data in a way that is “neither fully transparent nor based on voluntary and specific user consent,” appears unfair to users, the watchdog added.

The regulator said WhatsApp had told it that the policy update raised no competition law concerns.