The controversial privacy update that WhatsApp is pushing on India may be banned in Europe

The rollout of WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which critics warn will lead to more data sharing with its parent company Facebook, received a blow on May 13 after German regulators temporarily banned the update. The regulators are now said to be seeking a European Union-wide ban by presenting their case to the European Data Protection Board.

WhatsApp users will have noticed a recent intensification of pop-ups nudging them to agree to the app’s new terms of service. The cliff-edge deadline for users to accept these new terms – with WhatsApp announcing that those who failed to do so would lose functionality on the app – had been set for Saturday, May 15. That deadline was recently moved forward by “several weeks”.

This extension comes after WhatsApp was forced to scrap its initial February deadline in response to a global backlash against the Facebook subsidiary’s take-it-or-leave-it policy change. Since then, WhatsApp has sought to reassure users that its commitment to end-to-end encryption and user privacy is as strong as ever.

But while the German ban will be a blow to WhatsApp’s ambitions to monetise the app, the messaging platform may ultimately have its sights fixed elsewhere. WhatsApp’s largest market is India, with over 40 crore users. That is more than three times as many users as the app’s second-largest market, Brazil,…

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