The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed WhatsApp to widely publicise its undertaking given to the Centre in 2021 that its users in India do not have to accept its 2021 privacy policy in order to use it.
A five-judge Constitution bench of Justices K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and CT Ravikumar asked WhatsApp to give advertisements in five national newspapers to publicise its undertaking given to the Central government.
The constitution bench recorded the submission of mobile messaging app that they will abide by the terms of the letter given to the government. In 2021 on the issue that its India users are not bound to accept its 2021 privacy policy,
“We record the stand taken in the letter (to the government) and we record the submission of the senior counsel for WhatsApp that they will abide by the terms of the letter… till the next date of hearing. We further direct that WhatsApp will give publicity to this aspect to the customers of WhatsApp in five national newspapers on two occasions,” the bench said.
The apex court posted the matter for further hearing on April 11 as Centre informed it that the Data Protection Bill, 2022 will be brought before the parliament in the second half of the ongoing budget session.
The Centre had on Tuesday (January 31) apprised the top court that a new the Data Protection Bill, 2022 would be introduced in the Parliament in the second half of the Budget session.
The bench was hearing pleas filed by two students challenging WhatsApp’s 2021 Privacy Policy to share users’ data with parent company Facebook and others is a violation of their privacy and free speech.
Two students — Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi — challenged the contract entered into between the two companies to provide access to calls, photographs, texts, videos and documents shared by users in violation of their privacy and free speech.