In an interesting decision of the UP State Consumer disputes redressal Commission, WhatsApp has been considered as a “Paid Service” with the payment having been received in the form of personal data shared by the account holder.
Naavi has been advocating the “Data Valuation” as one of the essential features of Data Management in a company and valuing of data and its disclosure is a recommended procedure under the DGPSI (Data Governance and Protection Standard of India) framework of compliance.
The exact value of the data may be under dispute but the fact that data has a a value is indisputable. In this case, the value of the data has not been specified in rupee terms but whatever is the benefit used by WhatsApp is to be treated as the consideration passed.
Hope Income Tax and GST is not applicable !
Naavi
