Nov 19 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) said on

Tuesday it disagreed with an order by India's competition

watchdog that placed data-sharing restrictions between WhatsApp

and its other applications and said it would legally challenge

the order.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed WhatsApp

to refrain from sharing user data for advertising purposes with

other Meta-owned applications for five years and fined the U.S.

tech giant $25.4 million on Monday over antitrust violations

related to the messaging application's 2021 privacy policy.

The CCI had begun an investigation into WhatsApp's 2021

privacy policy in March that year. The policy allowed data

sharing between Meta and its units, sparking a global backlash.

"Sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta

companies... for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp

service shall not be made a condition for users to access

WhatsApp Service in India," the CCI said on Monday.

A spokesperson for Meta said on Tuesday that the 2021 update

did not change the privacy of people's personal messages.

"We also ensured no one would have their accounts deleted or

lose functionality of the WhatsApp service because of this

update," the spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank

Dhaniwala)