Govt urges High Court to stop WhatsApp from rolling out new policy for Indian users

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<strong>The Government on Friday urged the Delhi High Court to restrain Facebook-owned WhatsApp from rolling out its new privacy policy and terms of service for Indian users which are to come into effect from May 15.</strong></p>
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The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has stated in its affidavit submitted to the court that the new WhatsApp policy violates the rules on data protection in the Information Technology Act, 2000.</p>
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The MEITY affidavit was filed in response to a petition challenging the new privacy policy of social networking platform WhatsApp. The petitioners have contended that the new privacy policy indicates the "fissures" in Indian data protection and privacy laws.</p>
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WhatsApp has informed Indian users that they must either accept the new policy or else exit the app. The new policy makes it mandatory for them to share their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps.</p>
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European users, on the other hand, have the option to opt out of the policy and they would not be denied access to the app if they do so, the petition has said.</p>
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A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh listed the matter for further hearing on April 20.</p>
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The government submission says that WhatsApp “may be restrained from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service dated January 4, 2021 from February 8, 2021 or any subsequent date pending adjudication by this court."</p>
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It points out that the 2011  IT Rules, impose a host of obligations on a company in relation to the security of the data collected by it in the course of its business. The rules require a body corporate which  collects, stores or otherwise deals with data to issue a privacy policy providing for certain safeguards, in addition to imposing various other obligations. The petition has alleged that WhatsApp’s new policy does not comply with these rules.</p>
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The government has further stated in the petition that the Supreme Court has placed a responsibility on the Centre to introduce a regime on data protection and privacy.</p>
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"The Union has discharged this obligation by introducing the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha. Upon enactment, this law will provide a robust regime on data protection which will limit the ability of entities such as WhatsApp to issue privacy policies which do not align with appropriate standards of security and data protection, the petition adds.</p>
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It also said that pending the passage of this Bill, any privacy policy issued by a body corporate' such as WhatsApp must comply with the rules on data protection in the Information Technology Act, 2000.</p>
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The High Court had on February 3 issued notice to the Centre and WhatsApp and sought their replies on the petition challenging the social networking platform's new privacy policy.</p>
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Another petition, filed in January, challenging the new privacy policy of WhatsApp on the ground that it violates users right to privacy under the Constitution is pending before another bench of the high court.</p>
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