WhatsApp drags Government to court over IT law requiring it to trace origin of messages
WhatsApp claims that since messages are end-to-end encrypted, it would have to break encryption for receivers and 'originators' of messages to comply with the new law.
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FollowMessaging application WhatsApp has dragged the Government of India to the Delhi High Court over a clause in the new IT ministry guidelines that come into force from today.
WhatsApp challenged the provision that mandates social media firms to identify the "first originator of information" when authorities demand it.
The California-based Facebook unit, which has over 400 million users in the country, claimed that the provision violated the Right to Privacy as mentioned in the Indian Constitution.
The new law requires WhatsApp to trace people credibly accused of wrongdoing. However, WhatsApp claims that since messages are end-to-end encrypted, it would have to break encryption for receivers and 'originators' of messages to comply with the law.
In its petition, WhatsApp claims that the provision would force private companies to collect and store "who-said-what and who-shared-what" data for billions of messages daily simply to meet the requirement of law enforcement agencies.
Timing of WhatsApp High Court move
The news of WhatsApp's High Court move comes a day after the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) deadline to the Facebook-owned firm to respond to its notice to withdraw its updated privacy policy expired on Tuesday.
The government, in its May 18 notice, claimed that WhatsApp's new privacy policy undermines the values of informational privacy and data security of Indian citizens.
The government says that it is not just problematic but also irresponsible for WhatsApp to leverage its huge user base in India to impose unfair terms and conditions on Indian users. It also underlined concerns over the company's 'accept-the-terms-or-leave-the-platform stance' for Indian users that did not apply to its European consumers.Â
The notice stated that if the Instant messaging platform WhatsApp did not meet the deadline, then the government would initiate action in consonance with the laws.
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