Government to Delhi HC: WhatsApp's new privacy policy violates Indian IT rules

Centre told Delhi High Court that it views the new privacy policy of WhatsApp as a violation of the Indian Information Technology (IT) law and rules. The government sought directions to the social media platform to make it clear that it is confirming to the same.

Government’s claim was made before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh during hearing of several pleas challenging WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which according to the platform has come into effect from May 15 and has not been deferred.

WhatsApp told the court that while its new privacy policy has come into effect from May 15, it will not start deleting accounts of those users who have not accepted it and will try to encourage them to get on board.

The platform said there was no universal or uniform time limit after which it will start to accounts as each user will be dealt with it on case-to-case basis.

The bench issued notice to the Centre, Facebook and WhatsApp and sought their stand on one of the pleas by a lawyer who has claimed that the new policy violates users’ right to privacy under the Constitution.

During the hearing, the Centre said that according to it the policy was in violation of Indian IT laws and rules. It said it has written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the issue and a reply is awaited and therefore, there was a need to maintain status quo with regard to implementation of the policy.