WhatsApp Can’t Share User Data Collected Before Sept 25, Court Says
Delhi High Court allows WhatsApp to implement new privacy policy from September 25.
The Delhi High Court allowed messenger service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, to implement its new privacy policy starting September 25 but issued directions to safeguard the interest of users.
The high court bench, while allowing the privacy policy, directed WhatsApp to delete and not share any data – photos, videos, personal chats or any other – with Facebook and sister concerns of users who have opted out of the policy before September 25. Further, the court has restrained WhatsApp from sharing data of existing users with Facebook and sister concerns.
In an effort to regularise the messaging space, the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court-led bench has asked the Centre and the telecom regulator “to consider bringing messengers like WhatsApp under the statutory regulatory framework.”
“It’s a path-breaking order in upholding the right to privacy in the interest of WhatsApp users who joined the messaging service earlier,” said senior advocate Pratibha Singh, who represented the petitioners in court.
What’s The New Privacy Policy?
WhatsApp sent a notification to its users on August 25, asking them to accept recent changes in its terms and conditions, as per a new privacy policy that it was rolling out.
WhatApp’s new privacy policy allows it to collect and share information of its users’ with Facebook and all its group companies for the purpose of commercial advertising and marketing on its platform, according to information provided by the messaging service on its blog post. This includes sharing of phone numbers and information on a user’s contact list in violation of the user’s privacy.
Many users, who agreed without checking the changes, unintentionally allowed WhatsApp to hand over information about them to its parent company Facebook for commercial use.
How The Case Progressed So Far
Thereafter, a public interest litigation was filed in the Delhi High Court by 19-year-old Karmanya Singh Sareen and 22-year-old Shreya Sethi who alleged that though WhatsApp claims to offer end-to-end encryption there are loopholes in its new privacy policy which leads to a breach of security.
Complete security and protection of privacy of the details and data belonging/relating to all the users of WhatsApp – has remained an extremely significant, essential and basic feature of this internet based messaging service but stands compromised under the new policy, the PIL stated.
WhatsApp informed the court in its affidavit that nothing users share on WhatsApp “including user messages, photos, and account information, will be shared onto Facebook or any of Facebook’s other family of apps for others to see, and nothing users post on those apps will be shared on WhatsApp for others to see.”
Assuring the court that WhatsApp does not store user messages once they have been delivered, the messaging service said in a previous hearing that it also does not retain messages on its server.
However, petitioners had countered the new policy by saying that WhatsApp shares all information with Facebook and even retains “popular media like videos and messages” for a long period of time.
WhatsApp’s privacy policy, which is likely to take effect on 25 September, allows users not to accept the new policy by making changes in their WhatsApp settings and un-checking on the box allowing for sharing of information.