95% WhatsApp users surveyed claim receiving pesky or unsolicited commercial communication every day

February 23, 2023, New Delhi: The Supreme Court on October 14th, 2022, had dismissed pleas by WhatsApp and parent Meta challenging a probe by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the messaging platform’s 2021 privacy policy, saying the investigation by the antitrust regulator cannot be halted and nor can it be stopped from passing final orders. WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, an American multinational technology conglomerate, which also owns Facebook, Instagram among other products and services. India accounts for 416.6 million or nearly 30% of WhatsApp users. There were 489.9 million Facebook users in India in January 2022, which accounted for 34.2% of its entire population. In 2021, CCI had launched a probe into whether WhatsApp was in a position to compromise quality in terms of protection of individualized data. In the same year, the Government of India had also asked WhatsApp to clarify whether the platform conducts profiling of users in the country. It had asked WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy stating that its proposed change “make invasive and precise inferences about users”. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had at that time asked WhatsApp to clarify issues related to its privacy and data transfer and sharing policy and general business practices”.

LocalCircles since 2021 has been seeing WhatsApp users in India raise issues about unsolicited commercial communication on WhatsApp and through 2022 have been reporting a rise in such communication. In late 2022, LocalCircles attempted to quantify this menace via a user survey and found that 95% of WhatsApp users surveyed were receiving such communication. The same was escalated by LocalCircles to MEITY while including TRAI in the correspondence as well. Since the complaints from WhatsApp users continued and no action has emerged from MEITY or WhatsApp to address this menace, LocalCircles conducted a follow-on survey to understand if the situation has changed. The survey received over 51,000 responses from citizens located in 351 districts of India. 61% respondents were men while 39% respondents were women. 44% respondents were from tier 1, 35% from tier 2 and 21% respondents were from tier 3 & 4 districts.

95% WhatsApp users surveyed in India indicate that they get 1 or more pesky messages each day; 41% get 4 or more such messages daily

The first question in the survey asked WhatsApp users “On average, how many promotional or spam WhatsApp messages are you receiving on your phone every day”? A total of 13,462 responded to this query with 95% indicating that they get one or more unsolicited commercial messages on WhatsApp daily. The data shows that only 5% of those surveyed are spared this harassment, but 54% get 1-3 spam or promotional messages every day; 30% get 4-7 such messages and 11% get 8 or more such messages every day.

Financial services, real estate, healthcare/ pathology services and job/earnings offers are the most common among pesky or unsolicited commercial WhatsApp messages

The survey then sought to know what type of unsolicited WhatsApp message are being received. Some among the 13,437 respondents to this question selected more than one option. Majority or 73% indicated messages promoting or selling financial services; 69% pointed at selling real estate; 58% indicated offering jobs / earnings; 54% healthcare and pathology services; 38% pointed to offering services like RO repair, spa, beauty and massage, etc.; 25% to online or fantasy gaming; 23% to providing mobile talk / data plans, etc.; and 25% to other unspecified categories. In effect, financial services, real estate, healthcare/ pathology services and job/earnings offers are the most common among pesky or unsolicited commercial WhatsApp messages. Most Whatsapp users get such messages across multiple categories listed.

73% of those surveyed exercise the option to block the numbers from where the unsolicited commercial messages come

​​Many experts assume that many WhatsApp users in India do not avail the options of blocking, muting or archiving users and chats or lack awareness. To understand that, the third question in the survey asked respondents “How do you handle those senders who send promotional or spam messages to you on WhatsApp?” Majority or 73% out of 12,673 respondents to this question indicated that they exercise the option to block the numbers from where the unsolicited commercial messages come; 3% of those surveyed indicated that they archive such chats and 5% indicated that they mute them while 19% just ignore such messages. Both blocking and archiving ensure that messages from unwanted numbers are not presented to a WhatsApp user while muting a chat means group message notifications are not delivered to them. In some cases, spammers create groups of users and send pesky messages to them as it enables them to send such messages to a larger number of WhatsApp users at one go. The finding here clearly indicates that majority WhatsApp users surveyed are using tools available to them like blocking or archiving and yet the spam messages are continuing indicating that the senders are also switching numbers or that there are so many of them that the menace continues.

76% of those surveyed are seeing an increase in pesky or unsolicited commercial messages based on their conversations with WhatsApp business accounts and their activity on Facebook/ Instagram

One of the issues that has been reported by several WhatsApp users in 2022 has been that they are seeing an increase in pesky or unsolicited commercial messages based on their chats with WhatsApp business accounts as well as their activity on Instagram and Facebook. In May 2021, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy where it got users to accept that as a condition to using WhatsApp, if they chat with a WhatsApp business account, WhatsApp reserves the right to present advertisements to them on other Meta platforms like Facebook, based on the content of their chat with WhatsApp business accounts. To understand if users were having such an experience based on the privacy policy changes and to quantify the magnitude of such instances, LocalCircles asked the final survey question. It asked respondents, “In the last few years, are you seeing an increase in unsolicited commercial messages on WhatsApp based on your conversation with WhatsApp business users or your activity on Facebook/ Instagram”. Nearly three fourth or 76% of the 12,215 WhatsApp users who responded to this question stated that they are seeing an increase in pesky or unsolicited commercial messages based on their conversations with WhatsApp business accounts and their activity on Facebook/Instagram, the platforms owned by Meta in addition to WhatsApp. The data shows 60% of those surveyed are seeing an increase in such messages; 16% feel there is most likely an increase; 12% said “not really” sure; 8% deny there is any increase and 4% chose “can’t say”. Overall, 76% WhatsApp users surveyed explicitly stated that they are seeing an increase in pesky messages based on their conversations with business accounts and their activity on Instagram and Facebook. This is concerning to some users of WhatsApp as the new privacy policy said relevant advertising could be presented based on WhatsApp business chats on other Meta platforms but the survey finds that such advertising is somehow finding its way back on WhatsApp in the form of pesky messages to users.

In summary, the survey finds that 95% WhatsApp users claim receiving pesky or unsolicited commercial communication every day. WhatsApp users in India indicate most pesky messages come from someone selling financial services, real estate, offering jobs / earning opportunities, healthcare and pathology services. The survey also found that 76% users are using the block or archive feature to block such unwanted senders and chats and yet the menace continues. Finally, 76% of the WhatsApp users indicated that they are seeing pesky messages on WhatsApp based on their conversations with WhatsApp business accounts and Facebook & Instagram activities, something that is concerning to people. With the new WhatsApp privacy policy from 2021, WhatsApp users expected to see relevant advertising based on WhatsApp business chats on Facebook/Instagram but not exactly on Whatsapp and that too in the form of pesky messages. This is something that WhatsApp must investigate and if this is a result of organized advertising or partnership with brands , the users must be informed. If however, this is information usage and sharing by some users of WhatsApp Business the same must be addressed.

LocalCircles will escalate the findings of this survey to relevant stakeholders like MEITY and others to intervene and work with WhatsApp so the unsolicited commercial communication on the platform can be reduced.