As the deadline to opt out of the new WhatsApp privacy policy which allows users’ information to be shared with its parent company Facebook expires on September 25, the move has come for criticism from all quarters.
Advertisement
The Bench posed the query during the hearing of a petition filed by Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi against the new privacy policy that gives users the option of sharing their account information with Facebook. “But Facebook earns billions every year by exploiting the collective data of its users and selling them in the form of personalized advertising space to companies”, vzbv chair Klaus Müller warned in January 2015.
A two-judge bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, furnished notices to Facebook, WhatsApp, the government, and India’s telecommunication regulators, requesting them to prepare their pleas for the case that is due for a hearing later this week.
Responding to the allegations, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who represented the instant messaging platform stated, “we only have access to the person’s name and number which is also obtained by online consent”. WhatsApp does not retain anything on their servers, except for undelivered messages which may be kept for a period of up to 30 days until they are finally delivered.
The bench has listed the matter for September 23.
On 25 August, WhatsApp, pushed a notification to its users, asking them to accept recent changes in its terms and conditions.
People weren’t exactly happy when Facebook casually dropped that it was about to hoover up your WhatsApp data – such as phone numbers, and phone book details. “If any of the user wants to opt out of the new policy, he/she can not be forced to not choose that option”.
It was, however, directed that before 25 September the data of users, who continue to operate the instant messaging service, could not be appropriated by WhatsApp. “WhatsApp no longer needs to operate and provide the WhatsApp services”, the messaging platform has said in its affidavit. According to the new user terms, Facebook can gather phone numbers from the phonebook of any WhatsApp user.
Advertisement
On the other hand, WhatsApp and Facebook claim that they are doing this for the benefit of the user. However, other users with whom the outgoing user may have interacted with or shared any data will retain copies of the messages. They further argued that according to the new policy, when many people are sharing a popular photo or video, WhatsApp retains that content on their servers for a longer period of time.
