You may be trillion dollar firms but people value their privacy: SC to Facebook, WhatsApp

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Centre, Facebook and WhatsApp and sought their response within four weeks on a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users of the messaging app. The top court said that people have "grave apprehensions" that they will lose their privacy, and "it is our duty to protect them."

'...but people value their privacy more than money'

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the government and the Facebook-owned app on an interim application filed by Karmanya Singh Sareen in a pending petition of 2017. The apex court said people value their privacy more than the value of the company which might be in trillions. 

WhatsApp told the top court that Europe has a special law on privacy and it will also follow if India has a similar statute. "People have grave apprehension about. You may be two or three trillion company, but people value their privacy more than money," CJI Bobde said. Both, WhatsApp and Facebook have refuted the Centre's allegation of users' data sharing and told the court that such fears were baseless.

Delhi HC issues notice to Centre

Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Centre and WhatsApp Inc. on a plea seeking direction to provide with an option to opt-out of sharing personal data with Facebook as mandated by the new policy of WhatsApp. The petition also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines/regulations for safeguarding the privacy of the citizens. It stated that the fissures in law with respect to data are quite conspicuous and a framework to regulate the same is the need of the hour.

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The Division Bench of Justices DN Patel and Jyoti Singh sought response from the Centre through the Ministry of Electronics and IT and Whatsapp Inc. and slated the matter for March 19, 2021. Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma apprised the court that a Joint Parliamentary Committee is already examining this matter.

In January, WhatsApp had introduced its privacy policy mandating its users to accept its terms and conditions, failing which the accounts and services would be terminated after February 8, 2021, for the respective user. After facing criticism over the privacy policy, WhatsApp took to micro-blogging site Twitter clarifying that "no one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8 and we will be moving back our business plans until after May."

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(With agency inputs)