“You Maybe a $2 million or a trillion company but people are concerned about their privacy,” said Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde while issuing notice to WhatsApp in an application seeking a stay on the operation of its new privacy policy.
The applicants had prayed that WhatsApp shall not apply lower privacy standards for Indians and shall apply the same standard of privacy as is being applied to Europeans.
A three-judge bench of the Apex Court headed by Chief Justice Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian has asked WhatsApp, an American messaging company with voice-over service, owned by Facebook, Inc. to file its reply to the petition concerning the privacy of Indian citizens.
Senior Counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for the Applicants, said that WhatsApp was differentiating between Indians and Europeans in terms of privacy standards.
Senior Counsel Arvind Datar, appearing for Facebook, submitted that the new privacy policy is completely a new cause of action.
“People have grave apprehensions of loss of privacy. You may be a 2 million or trillion company but people are concerned about their privacy,”
-said the Chief Justice.
The Court was hearing the application filed by law students, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, in their pending case (Karmanya Singh Sareen & Anr. Vs Union of India Ministry of Communications Department of Telecommunications Sectetary & Ors.), after WhatsApp updated its user policy on January 4, 2021.
The petitioners contended that the manner in which the new privacy policy of WhatsApp was framed and the terms of the new policy result in a grave affront to the fundamental right of privacy of crores of Indian citizens who use WhatsApp on a daily basis.