Why WhatsApp is no more a consensual way of saying wassup: A saga of WhatsApp privacy policy under Indian Competition Act

Abstract

To date, Competition Commission of India's stand on privacy infringement and data-collection tactics of dominant companies remains abstruse. The argument intensified with unilateral change in WhatsApp's terms only applicable to Indian Users; they were mandated to share their data to continue using WhastApp.com . The empirical evidence shows that consumers are sensitive to privacy but would still continue to use the services which shows lack of effective choice and therefore free consent. The author defines consent by expounding on the Behavioral-economic concept of consumer inertia. The article explicates how consent gets vitiated by relying on: First, pre-installation is a form of tying Second, virtual shelf space impacts user traffic. The article discusses how CCI could have used the abrogated Personal Data-Protection law to route excessive data-collection tactics and privacy infringement by dominant entities within the parasol of competition. The article concludes by stating that consumer choice independently can be a sufficient theory of harm.