The Supreme Court tells WhatsApp that after your new policy there is a lot of apprehension about the privacy of people. Chief Justice SA Bobde said, “You may be $2-3 trillion company but people’s privacy is more valuable for us and it is our duty to protect their privacy.”
The Chief Justice has sought answers from WhatsApp, Facebook and the Centre on petitions challenging this privacy policy.
Apprehensions among Indians about your new policy
The court also supported the plea of senior advocate ShyamDivan, in which he said that there is no law on data protection in India. A bench of Chief Justice Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramaniam said in a note that we are impressed by Mr Divan’s plea. Such a law should come into effect. WhatsApp will share data of Indians under its new privacy. There are apprehensions among Indians about this data sharing.
Also read: How The New Policy Of WhatsApp Will Affect You?
WhatsApp’s reply
The Supreme Court has sought a response from WhatsApp on allegations of dropping the privacy standard in India compared to Europe. WhatsApp said on this that Europe has special laws about privacy. If there are similar laws in India, then we will follow them too.
What is WhatsApp’s new policy?
As per the apprehensions, WhatsApp users who upload, submit, store, send or receive any data, the company can use it anywhere. The company can also share that data. The policy was to come into force from 8 February 2021, but the deadline has been extended to 15 May after the controversy escalated. It was previously claimed that if the user does not approve this policy, then he will not be able to use his account.
Government is strict on social media
Recently, the government had expressed its displeasure on social media about fake news, offensive and violence-provoking content. In the Rajya Sabha, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said, “We respect social media. It has given strength to the common people. The role of social media is also very important in Digital India program, but if it promotes fake news and violence then we will take action. Then be it Twitter or some platform.”