Airtel privacy policy tracks your sensitive information like sexual orientation and political views and shares it with third parties.

Airtel updated its privacy policy to remove some extreme points, but it said it does not collect information beyond what is permissible by the law.

Airtel updated its privacy policy to remove some extreme points, but it said it does not collect information beyond what is permissible by the law. Airtel users were enraged after one of the users tweeted about the telecom company’s privacy policy, stating that the company collects personal information like sexual orientation, genetic information, and political opinion and shares it with third parties.

However, after the Twitter rage, the company updated its privacy policy to remove the more extreme points. The company clarified in a statement to Gadgets 360 that the intrusion was an inadvertent error caused by using a generic template for the page.

The company said that their policy mentions expansive definitions which may not be warranted, and also that it does not collect information beyond what is permissible by the law.

As per a study by the Centre for Internet and Society on the privacy policies of Indian service providers and the 43A rules, dated Jan. 2015, “Airtel's Privacy Policy fully incorporates the safeguards found in the Rules under 43A. Airtel's privacy policy incorporates a number of the requirements stipulated in the Rules. Airtel's privacy policy is easily accessible on its website and is clear and easy to understand. Airtel has provided for a grievance officer and abides by the IS/ISO/IEC 27001 security standards. While Airtel allows for the disclosure of information including sensitive personal information to third parties, its policy states that such third parties will follow reasonable security practices in this regard. Concerning disclosure to the government, Airtel shares user information only when it is legally authorized by a government agency”.

Cybersecurity expert, Prashant Mali, told Gadgets 360 that users' data such as sexual orientation and even political opinion falls within the definition of SPDI under Section 43A of the Information Technology Act (2000); and collecting, storing, and processing it is well within the rules. Therefore, as noted by experts, it is clear that what is currently permissible is extremely far-reaching, and open to misuse.

Therefore, it would is not fully correct to say that Airtel is tracking users’ sensitive information and sharing it with the third parties, as the company's actions are well within the permits of the law. It did rectify its privacy policy to remove such extreme points.