New Privacy Policy on Hold until Data Protection Law comes into Power: WhatsApp to Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: WhatsApp, the instant messaging application, has told the Delhi high court on Friday that it will not constrain its users to pick its new privacy policy until the enactment of the data protection bill. The app additionally informed the court that the new policy has been required to be postponed and will be implemented if Parliament permits it. Up to that point, it will not restrict the functionality of the app to users who decide not to select the new privacy policy. As WhatsApp pushed back the policy rollout, users get confused about whether they will use the app or switch to other apps.

According to the reports, DN Patel, a bench of Chief Justice and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing the allures of Facebook and WhatsApp against a single-judge order declining to remain an order for rivalry controller Competition Commission of India (CCI) coordinating a test into WhatsApp's new privacy policy.

Advocate Harish Salve, on behalf of WhatsApp, said that they voluntarily agreed to put the policy on to be postponed. They will not propel people to accept it. He said that it would keep on showing the update to its users. Later in the day, WhatsApp also released a statement, guaranteeing users about the privacy concerns, and said that the recent update does not change the privacy of people's personal messages. It added that its purpose is to give additional data about how people can interact with businesses and organisations if they decide to do as such.

The representative said that they will not restrict the functionality of how WhatsApp functions in the coming weeks. Instead, they will keep on remind users from time to time about the update as well as when people decide to utilize important optional features, like communicating with a business that is getting support from Facebook. The representative further said that WhatsApp hopes this methodology builds up the decision that all users have whether they need to interact with a business. They will keep up with this methodology until the upcoming PDP law becomes effective. They emphasize that the privacy of users remains their highest priority.

It is to be mentioned that in January this year, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy, which permits the instant messaging service to share information about users' connections to business accounts with Facebook.

The move started significant privacy concerns among users just as a shock after WhatsApp reported that it would restrict the functionality of its platform in case users decide not to accept the conditions. After reactions, WhatsApp pushed back the policy rollout but in February, it said that it will proceed with its decision. This came notwithstanding the Indian government requesting the company to leave its plans.

As WhatsApp told the Delhi high court about the data protection act (data safety bill), the representatives are making firm decisions.

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