India asks WhatsApp to withdraw new privacy policy over ‘grave concerns’
As background, to set the scene for what the state of privacy is in India: India has no privacy legislation, and selling datasets seems to be a popular informal  activity[1]. (That article is worth a read in its entirety.)<p>It’s not unusual for shops to demand a telephone number during even small purchases, and your number will be spammed with SMS ads shortly thereafter. Also email spam if they somehow get your email.<p>Chat archives (possibly backups?) of people under investigation have been leaked to the media with no consequence to the leaker.<p>Essentially it’s an extreme “laissez-faire” environment, one almost out of a textbook example of what happens in the absence of any regulation whatsoever.<p>The above doesn’t have anything to do with Facebook or WhatsApp (except tangentially), it’s just to note that privacy legislation would be a very helpful quality of life improvement for many Indians.<p>Perhaps someone on HN who knows more about this can share why the efforts to have privacy legislation in India have so far been unsuccessful.<p>[1] <a href="https://restofworld.org/2020/all-the-data-fit-to-sell/" rel="nofollow">https://restofworld.org/2020/all-the-data-fit-to-sell/</a>