‘Leave WhatsApp, It’s Voluntary’: Delhi HC on New Privacy Policy

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which was supposed to come into effect in February, has been deferred till May.

As per the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app. Image used for representation. 

(Photo Courtesy: iStock)

The Delhi High Court on Monday, 17 January, observed that it is “voluntary” to accept the new privacy policy of social messaging app WhatsApp and said that if one does not approve of its terms and conditions, they can choose not to join it, reported PTI.

In response to a petitioner who had challenged WhatsApp's new privacy policy, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva was quoted by PTI as saying, "It is a private app. Don't join it. Use some other app."

The court further said that people will be surprised if they go through the terms and conditions of most mobile applications. The new privacy policy, which was supposed to come into effect in February, has been deferred till May.

The court further said that even an application such as Google maps captures all your data and stores it.

The court, while addressing the petitioner’s plea, said that it could not understand what data would be leaked. Since it felt that the case requires more time for consideration, the matter has been listed for 25 January, as reported by PTI.

While representing WhatsApp and Facebook, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi told the court that several issues raised in the plea did not have any ground to them.

In addition to this, the advocates told the court that private chat messages between family and friends cannot be stored by WhatsApp and would remain encrypted. They also mentioned that under the new policy, this position would not change. However, business chats done over WhatsApp would be affected, they were quoted by PTI.

The petitioner in his plea has claimed that the updated privacy policy violates the privacy rights of the users. He also claimed that WhatsApp allows full access into a user's online activity without any government supervision.

As per the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app. The users are not given an option of opting out from sharing their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps, the petitioner said.

‘Who is Appearing for What?’: Interesting Banter Ensues in Court

During the course of the hearing, the two lawyers engaged in a banter over which one of them was representing WhatsApp and Facebook, reported NDTV.

Mukul Rohatgi, former Attorney General, said that he was appearing for WhatsApp to which, senior lawyer and Congress leader Kapil Sibal responded: "I'm appearing for WhatsApp. You're appearing for Facebook."

Rohatgi looked puzzled on Sibal’s response and said, "Really? I thought it was the other way round”.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva then intervened and said that both of them need to share some data on who is appearing for whom.

(With inputs from PTI & NDTV )