The Justice BN Srikrishna Committee drafted a tough data protection law in 2018. It included the right to confirmation and access and data portability. Why has it been hanging fire since then?
The petition has been filed by Chaitanya Rohilla alleging that the new Privacy Policy brought by WhatsApp is violative of Right to Privacy affirmed by the Supreme Court of India in the Justice KS Puttaswamy and Ors. Vs. Union of India Judgment.
Justice Pratibha Singh sets aside from the bench hearing the petition challenging the new privacy policy of WhatsApp, directed to create a separate bench.
WhatsApp has been a popular messaging app with 400 million users in India out of about 2 billion users worldwide. On the other hand, it has about 68 million users in the US.
The Data Protection Bill has been in the pipeline for a couple of years and it is a mystery when it will become an Act. Justice BN Srikrishna had led the committee that drafted the Personal Data Protection Bill.
In the petition, Viswam had prayed that Indians’ right to privacy should be protected from being misused by “giant corporations” for their “financial ends”.
The accused has tendered an unconditional apology in his affidavit tendered in the Court which is taken on record. He wrote his unconditional and unqualified apology for his wrongful act and undertakes not to commit any such act in the future.
To relieve courts of cases relating to intermediaries, the government should have an elaborate grievance redressal process, starting with a designated ombudsman, mediation and later, adjudication.
Whatsapp has long been offering end-to-end encryption, where the text or file transferred between two people will remain only with the sender and the receiver.