The Supreme Court on Wednesday recorded an undertaking from WhatsApp that the messaging platform will not disrupt services till April 11 even if subscribers don’t accept the company’s privacy policy that mandates sharing of subscriber data with parent company Meta.
According to WhatsApp, its subscriber base is 600million in India.
The undertaking means no WhatsApp user can be forced to accept the privacy policy and the messaging service giant cannot remove them from the platform for non-compliance.
A five-judge bench headed by Justice K.M. Joseph recorded the undertaking from WhatsApp and its associated entities after the Centre informed the court that the Data Protection Bill, 2022, is expected to be taken up by Parliament in March.
The bench adjourned the matter for further hearing to April 11. Attorney-general R. Venkataramani and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought deferring of the matter till Parliament clears the bill.
The bench, which includes Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C.T. Ravi Kumar, recorded an assurance from WhatsApp that it would soon publicise twice, in at least five national newspapers through full-page advertisements, that there would be no disruption in services for subscribers who do not accept the 2016 privacy policy.
