The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to social media companies WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook in connection with a plea challenging the company’s new privacy policy. The plea filed seeks a stay on the operation of the new WhatsApp privacy policy.
The SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde, sought responses from both WhatsApp and Facebook. “You may be $2-3 trillion company but people’s privacy is more valuable for them and it is our duty to protect their privacy,” the top court told WhatsApp. The SC bench added that it will have to intervene to protect the privacy of people if the new WhatsApp privacy policy is introduced. The top court has also issued a notice to the central government in connection with the matter. The bench further said that Indian citizens have apprehensions regarding the privacy concerns with respect to the WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. WhatsApp had earlier announced that it would bring a new privacy policy and implement it from February 5. But after the government’s notice, the date was extended to May 14.
It is worth mentioning that WhatsApp’s new privacy policy is different for India and Europe. The government told SC that the companies can’t share data of users and data must be protected.
