India’s highest court issues sharp warning to WhatsApp, questioning its data practices and refusing to allow privacy violations during appeal.
New Delhi: India’s highest court has issued a sharp warning to WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta. The judges said Meta cannot treat Indian user privacy carelessly.
The court wants to know how WhatsApp makes money from personal information. Judges question whether people can truly choose in a market where WhatsApp is the main way people communicate. Over 500 million Indians use the service.
Chief Justice Surya Kant issued a strong order. He said Meta and WhatsApp cannot share any user information while the case continues. Kant described WhatsApp as having too much power in practice. He asked how a poor fruit seller or a house worker could understand how their data is used.
Other judges wanted to know the value of user behavior information. They asked whether even anonymous data has economic worth. Government lawyers said personal information is collected and used for profit. Meta’s lawyers said messages are encrypted and cannot be read, even by the company itself.
The case began when WhatsApp changed its privacy policy in 2021. Users had to agree to share more data with Meta or stop using the service. India’s competition regulator fined WhatsApp about $23.6 million for abusing its power. The Supreme Court will hear more details on February 9th.