In an ongoing hearing in the Delhi High Court on WhatsApp Privacy Policy, the company said that the new privacy policy has not been postponed.
Whatsapp Privacy Policy
Mobile messaging service WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court on Monday that it has not postponed the May 15 deadline for users to accept their new privacy policy.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represents WhatsApp, said that Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh submitted before the bench that they are trying to get the users on board, but if they do not agree with the privacy policy, then the company will gradually remove the accounts of these users.
Sibal submitted before the court that the policy has not been postponed. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, representing the Center, said that there are concerns that the policy is a violation of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules thereunder.
Sharma told the bench that the government has written a letter to the CEO of the company and she is waiting for a reply. The update policy will allow WhatsApp to share some data about users’ interactions with business accounts with their parent company, Facebook.
Case adjourned till 3 June
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, who represented WhatsApp along with Sibal, objected to a plea made by advocate Manohar Lal, who claimed that users who had not agreed to the privacy policy, were not allowed to use the app. Was going Datar submitted, our privacy policy does not violate the IT rules, we are running from rule to rule.
The High Court has adjourned the case till June 3. The ASG said that the court should record the statement of WhatsApp’s counsel that the company would be compliant with Indian law. He said that the company should maintain the status quo, where neither the account nor the data will be deleted, if the users revoke their consent to the new privacy policy. WhatsApp’s lawyer opposed the moratorium and said that he would not make any such statement.
There was a demand to give users the opt-out option
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Seema Singh and law student Chaitanya Rohilla against WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. The petitioners asked the Center to direct WhatsApp to withdraw its policy or provide an option to opt-out users to update it on 4 January 2021. The High Court issued a notice on the petition in February.
Let us know that earlier WhatsApp had given deadline of 8 February and then 15 May that those who do not accept its new privacy policy, their accounts will be deleted after this. But now instead of doing so, WhatsApp will stop the services of such users. When phone calls and messages cannot be sent through WhatsApp, then users will stop using it. In such a situation, if the usage of WhatsApp is stopped for 120 days, the policy of deletion of the account itself will be implemented. However, in the meantime, users can download the data of their WhatsApp account in their phone.
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(Agency-IANS)
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