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The company, which offers end-toend encryption for users of its messaging app, has resisted demands by the Indian government to enable traceability of messages to curb rumours. Senior officials who briefed ET on the meeting — conducted on videoconference — said it was initiated by the US company, which is looking to deepen its business in one of the largest open markets in the world.
“Officials from WhatsApp were in listening mode and did not offer any kind of final response on the issues discussed,” said one of the people cited above who said the agenda was “technical issues on traceability”.
The meeting was proposed by WhatsApp director and associate general counsel Brian Hennessy and attended by a team of officials from the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY<\/a>).
Though WhatsApp has steadfastly maintained that it will not break its encryption to allow tracing the origin of messages, executives at the meeting heard out the ministry’s demands and did not categorically say “no” or “yes” to traceability, sources told ET. “This was the first discussion and things are at a preliminary stage right now,” one official said. More such meetings are expected to follow in the coming weeks.
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WhatsApp has been seeking government approval to launch its payment business in the country and has been under scrutiny over its compliance with the banking regulator’s diktat to store data of Indian users exclusively here.
In response to ET’s queries on the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting, a representative for WhatsApp said, “(The company) regularly engages with the government of India to discuss our commitment to maintaining a private and safe platform for people to communicate with one another.
We look forward to continued discussions on how we can work together towards these common goals.” On Thursday, the Australian lawmakers passed a bill that mandates companies such as Facebook and WhatsApp to decrypt messages to curb fake news and terrorism. The bill also allows police and intelligence agencies of Australia to access software of such messaging tools for surveillance.
APPOINTMENT OF LOCAL CEO <\/strong>
Indian officials discussed all the issues earlier raised by the country’s union minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad<\/a> at this week’s meeting with WhatsApp executives, sources said. At an earlier meeting with WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels<\/a>, Prasad asked the San Francisco-based company to register a legal entity in India and appoint a local CEO as well as a grievance officer based here, in addition to building a mechanism to identity the origin of messages.
During Daniels’ last visit to India in October, the minister had made clear that WhatsApp must station its grievance officer in the country and not in the US, and trace the origin of the messages if required by law enforcement agencies.
“On the issue of traceability, I emphasised that when we talk of traceability, we don’t talk of decrypting messages,” Prasad said after his meeting with Daniels. “We insist rather on location and identification of the sender of WhatsApp messages when such messages lead to provocation of violence, heinous offences and other serious crimes.”
The latest outreach to the Indian government by the US company comes weeks before Abhijit Bose<\/a> takes charge of its India operations. Bose, who built a payments business in his startup Ezetap, is expected to take charge as India CEO of WhatsApp from January.
PRIVACY STANDARDS <\/strong>
While it has acceded to the government demand of creating a local entity led by an India-based CEO, WhatsApp has resisted demands on traceability on the grounds that it would break its end-to-end encryption.
In an email interview to ET, Daniels said the messaging service is unlikely to give up on the “core” issue of maintaining its encryption standards. He had sought a “level playing field” for its services in India since its UPI-based payment service has been at the beta stage for a year now awaiting approvals for the full-fledged launch.
“Fighting misinformation is a societal challenge that requires action from all of us — technology companies, civil society, government and the users of our platforms. It’s important to understand that WhatsApp messages are endto-end encrypted and we do not know — and therefore cannot provide — the content or the originator of private messages. To do this, we would have to redesign our systems and revise our privacy standards to indiscriminately track user data. We think this is overly intrusive from a privacy perspective,” he said.
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该公司为用户提供end-toend加密的消息传递应用程序,由印度政府拒绝要求遏制谣言的消息来启用跟踪。高级官员会议简报等——进行视频会议,说,这是由美国公司,正在寻求深化业务在一个世界上最大的开放市场。
“WhatsApp官员在听力模式,没有提供任何类型的最终响应问题讨论,”引用上面说的一个人说的议程是“技术问题可追溯性”。
会议提出了由WhatsApp导演、副法律顾问布莱恩轩尼诗和由外交部的官员参加电子和它(MeitY)。
尽管WhatsApp坚决坚称它不会打破其加密允许跟踪消息的起源,高管在会上听到了卫生部的要求,没有明确说“不”或“是”可追溯性,告诉ET来源。“这是第一次讨论和事情现在处于初步阶段,”一位官员表示。更多这样的会议预计将在未来几周。
WhatsApp一直在寻求政府批准在中国推出支付业务,符合银监会的监督下的命令来存储数据的印度用户只在这里。
回应等的查询在周二的会议的结果,WhatsApp一位代表说,“(该公司)与印度政府定期进行,讨论我们的承诺,维护一个私人和安全的人们相互沟通的平台。
我们期待着继续讨论如何实现这些共同目标一起工作。”周四,澳大利亚国会通过了一项法案,授权公司如Facebook和WhatsApp解密消息来遏制虚假新闻和恐怖主义。乐动扑克该法案还允许澳大利亚警方和情报机构访问软件的通讯工具来监视。
任命当地首席执行官
印度官员讨论的所有问题早些时候提出的国家联盟电子和部长Ravi Shankar普拉萨德在本周的会议上与WhatsApp高管,消息人士说。在早些时候会见WhatsApp CEO克里斯·丹尼尔斯,普拉萨德问总部位于旧金山的公司注册一个法律实体在印度和任命一位首席执行官以及不满当地官员在这里,除了建立一个机制来标识消息的起源。
丹尼尔斯去年10月访问印度期间,部长已经明确表示,WhatsApp必须站不满官在中国而不是在美国,和跟踪消息的来源由执法机构如果需要。
“可追溯性的问题上,我强调,当我们谈论的可追溯性,我们不谈论解密消息,”普拉萨德说,在他与丹尼尔斯会面。“我们坚持,而在位置和识别WhatsApp消息时,消息的发送方导致的暴力挑衅,令人发指的罪行和其他严重的犯罪分子。”
最新的推广印度政府由美国公司之前几周发布Abhijit玻色负责其印度业务。玻色,他建立了一个支付业务启动Ezetap,预计负责印度的首席执行官WhatsApp从1月。
隐私标准
虽然加入政府的需求创建一个本地实体由印度首席执行官WhatsApp拒绝需求可追溯性,因为它将打破端到端加密。
等在电子邮件采访中,丹尼尔斯表示,消息传递服务不太可能放弃在“核心”问题上保持其加密标准。他寻求一个“公平竞争”为其服务在印度UPI-based支付服务一直以来在beta阶段一年现在等待批准全面启动。
“战斗错误信息是一个社会的挑战,需要我们行动——科技企业,公民社会、政府和用户的平台。重要的是要理解endto-end WhatsApp消息加密,我们不知道-,因此不能提供私人信息的内容或发起人。要做到这一点,我们将不得不重新设计系统和修改我们的隐私标准不分青红皂白地跟踪用户数据。我们认为这是过于侵入从隐私的角度来看,”他说。
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