WhatsApp scrambles as users in big Indian market fret over privacy

A WhatsApp advertisement is seen on the front pages of newspapers at a stall in Mumbai, India, January 13, 2021. Picture taken January 13, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - WhatsApp is battling mistrust globally after it updated its privacy policy to let it share some user data with parent Facebook and other group firms, and the backlash risks thwarting its ambitions in its biggest market, India.

Though WhatsApp has yet to see mass uninstalls of its app in India, users concerned about privacy are increasingly downloading rival apps such as Signal and Telegram, research firms say, propelling them higher on the download charts and putting those apps ahead of their ubiquitous rival in India for the first time.