SC issues notice to WhatsApp over, says ‘you may be trillion dollar company but people value their privacy’
"You (Facebook and WhatsApp) may be a $2-3 trillion company but people value their privacy more than money," the top court told Facebook and WhatsApp.
FollowNew Delhi: The Supreme Court today told social media firm Facebook and its messaging app, WhatsApp, that it will have to intervene to protect people's privacy in the wake of the latter's new policy in this regard.
Issuing a notice, the Supreme Court sought a stay on the operation of the new privacy policy of WhatsApp.
Seeking responses from both the tech firms, the apex court said that it will have to intervene to protect people's privacy in the wake of the messaging app's new policy on this regard.
In its notice, the SC said that "citizens have great apprehension about loss of their privacy and they think that their data and chats being shared with others and it has to be looked into."
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJ), SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that while the tech giant may be a company with deep coffers, people value their privacy more than money.
"You (Facebook and WhatsApp) may be a $2-3 trillion company but people value their privacy more than money," the top court told Facebook and WhatsApp.
"The privacy of people is more important than your money," remarked the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde while issuing notices to Facebook and WhatsApp on an application seeking to restrain WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy in India and to direct it to apply the privacy policy which is made applicable to users in European region.
In January, WhatsApp renewed its terms of service and privacy policy, which were to come into effect on February 8. According to it, users must agree to its new data sharing norms, which includes business conversations, with Facebook. Since this is not optional, users have been left confused and concerned over privacy.
The court was hearing a plea by one Karmanya Singh Sareen and others seeking a stay on WhatsApp's new privacy policy. Their lawyer, Shyam Diwan, told the court that WhatsApp was differentiating between European countries and India in its policy.
