The Ethical and Privacy Issues Realted with the use of Whatsapp : A Case Study in Islamabad

Abstract

Privacy is considered the foremost human right all over the world, regardless of region, religion or culture. Now that the world has become a global village with the advancement in communication technology, privacy has become an endangered concept. People using the latest technology to communicate with each other are more prone to invasion of privacy through cyber-criminal activities. On acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook in 2014, the privacy policy of WhatsApp came under fire as Facebook made changes that were unacceptable at every level of professional and moral ethics. Our aim is to explore and analyze the impact of the breach of privacy of WhatsApp users. We also conducted qualitative research to gauge the opinion of people through convenience quota sampling. For this, we conducted in-depth interviews with university students from Islamabad. The two variables that we worked on were Ethics and Privacy related to the use of WhatsApp. The results were quite unanimous regarding individual privacy as well as privacy policy of WhatsApp. The ambiguous policy statements that are present in their Terms and Conditions page is condemned by the participants vociferously. We have tried to recommend measures to take while using new technology. We have tried to assess the legal implications that are and that could be from legal point of view.