Meta Platforms revealed its plan to appeal a decision by India’s competition commission on Tuesday. The ruling prohibits the US tech giant from sharing advertising data between WhatsApp and its other apps, while also imposing a $25.4 million fine.
In its order released on Monday, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that sharing of data would be limited to five years. It had started looking into WhatsApp’s privacy rules for 2021 in March of that year.
The strategy let Meta and its units share data, which caused a global backlash.
The Central Council of India (CCI) said on Monday that “the Sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta companies… for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp service shall not be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp Service in India.”
According to a Meta representative, the 2021 update did not change how private people’s texts are. A representative for WhatsApp said, “We also ensured no one would have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of the WhatsApp service because of this update.”