”Traceability will likely continue to be a prominent issue in the debate in India around rules for digital platforms and communications service providers. However, there are credible concerns around the security, privacy and effectiveness of the two methods most often proposed to enable traceability, the use of digital signatures and the use of metadata,” the whitepaper said.

“The proposed changes raise grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens,” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wrote in an email to WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart dated Jan. 18.

“Therefore, you are called upon to withdraw the proposed changes,” the ministry wrote in the letter seen by Reuters.

Speaking on the data privacy , chairperson of Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi , said there are many who are unaware of the kinds of warring systems that exist in the digital ecosystem today. ”When you look around the systems, you see that we are dealing with an unfair system. Unfair not just in India but globally, there is lot of intellectual property theft which is going on right now stealthily, which people may not even know about,” she said.