Traders' body moves SC against WhatsApp updated policy

Confederation of All India Traders has approached the Supreme Court seeking a restraint against Facebook-owned WhatsApp from sharing users' data in violation of the right to privacy of citizens.

It maintained that WhatsApp's updated policy, introduced since January 4, 2021, was against the public law and policy and cannot be sustained on the grounds of legality. Notably, the updated privacy policy does not apply to the users in the European Region, due to strict provisions of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and the imposition of multimillion-dollar fines against such arbitrary privacy policies.

"WhatsApp, which is rendering essential public services by enabling citizens to communicate, has imposed unconstitutional privacy conditions which are not only violative of the law but can impact the national security of the country," it said.

The confederation asked the court to direct the government to formulate appropriate guidelines to regulate the functioning of internet-based messaging services including their privacy policy for handling of or dealing in personal information to ensure that the privacy rights of the users are not compromised.

The traders' body, in its plea, said all internet-based messaging services should duly inform their users about the actual and true import of their privacy policy in respect of the information provided and shared by the users and further safeguard the rights of minors.

"The details and data which travel on the internet messaging service provider do not belong to the said service provider but are owned by the users, constituting a class in itself. Therefore, nobody claims the right to share the data," it said.

However, several users are left with no option but to compromise on their privacy, owing to the dominant position of WhatsApp in the market.

WhatsApp, after being launched in 2009, has grown substantially with a strong networks effect and currently has over 2 billion users worldwide and 400 million users in India. Since August 2016, WhatsApp has been retracting its stance and altered the most valuable, basic and essential feature of its messaging service i.e. protection of user’s personal data, it said.

"The change in the privacy policy of WhatsApp, and the Facebook group of companies amounts to a direct invasion of privacy of the millions of users," it claimed.