There is no urgency in hearing pleas challenging WhatsApp’s new privacy policy as the instant messaging provider has already made a statement that it would “not transfer data” to Facebook till the personal data protection bill is finalised, the Delhi high court said on Thursday.
A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh was also informed by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp, that they would not block anyone who is not accepting their new privacy policy.
“We said we will not block,” Sibal stated. Taking note of the submission, the court said, “They have already made a statement that till the personal data protection bill is not finalised, they will not transfer. There is another matter before this court in which they have made the statement. This is not so urgent,” and deferred the pleas challenging WhatsApp’s privacy policy.
The pleas have contended that the updated privacy policy violates users’ right to privacy under the Constitution and they can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt to not share their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps. The company had pushed back the deadline for new privacy policy launched in January this year which allowed it to share some data about users’ interactions with business accounts with its parent company Facebook.
On July 9, when the court was hearing a plea by WhatsApp and Facebook against a probe by the Competition Commission of India into its privacy policy, the instant messaging platform had told the court that till the data protection bill came into force, it would not compel users to opt for its new privacy policy.
{{/usCountry}}On July 9, when the court was hearing a plea by WhatsApp and Facebook against a probe by the Competition Commission of India into its privacy policy, the instant messaging platform had told the court that till the data protection bill came into force, it would not compel users to opt for its new privacy policy.
{{/usCountry}}