The Delhi High Court (HC) has a straightforward view on the new policies of WhatsApp. A petition was filed at the HC for issuing notices to both Facebook and WhatsApp. The petition was against the recent changes brought to the terms and conditions of WhatsApp’s usage by Facebook. However, the Delhi HC didn’t issue any notice to the concerned companies. HC said it will carry a detailed hearing on the matter on January 25, 2021, for now, it has refused to issue a notice to WhatsApp and Facebook — more details on the story ahead.
HC Says Don’t Use the App if You Don’t Like New Policies
In the hearing, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said that if users don’t like the new terms and conditions of WhatsApp, they can stop using it. Since WhatsApp is a private app, the users have the option to delete it if they don’t want their data to be shared with Facebook. For the unaware, as per the recent changes brought to the terms and conditions of the WhatsApp’s usage; a plethora of user’s data from WhatsApp would be shared with Facebook to help the parent company improve ad experience for the consumer across its suite of products. Justice Sachdeva said that if people are not conformable sharing that data with Facebook, they can stop using the application. The HC observed that it is not just WhatsApp and Facebook, but several other apps that do the same thing with user’s data. The court pointed out that even Google Maps captures all the user’s data and stores it. Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal representing WhatsApp said that the petition filed is without merits. They further said that the recent policy changes are related to Business Chats and the personal chats won’t be affected in any manner. The plea filed by the petitioner says that WhatsApp is looking to collect complete online activity of users without any supervision of government on it. The lawyer representing the petitioner at the court said that users in the European Union are given an option to continue using the app without accepting the new policies; however, it is not the same for India. While the HC has denied issuing notices to Facebook and WhatsApp, it said that it will hear the matter in more detail on January 25, 2021. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has extended the time for users to accept the new policy. The last date, previously February 8, 2021, has been extended to May 15, 2021. If not accepted until that date, users won’t be able to use the app further.
