The Centre Thursday told the Delhi High Court that WhatsApp was indulging in anti-user practices by obtaining “trick-consent” from the users for its updated privacy policy to ensure that its entire existing user base is made to accept the terms and conditions before the Personal Data Protection Bill becomes law in India.
“It is submitted that millions of WhatsApp existing users, those who have not accepted the updated 2021 privacy policy, are being bombarded with notifications on an everyday basis,” it said in response to a petition challenging the Facebook-owned messaging app’s 2021 privacy policy.
The government also told the court that WhatsApp has “unleashed its digital prowess” to the “unsuspecting existing users” and would like to force them to accept the privacy policy by flashing such notifications at regular intervals.
“The game plan is very clear, i.e, to transfer the entire existing user base committed to updated 2021 privacy policy before the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill becomes law,” reads the government reply.
Seeking directions from the court to stop WhatsApp from sending the notifications to the user, the government has also argued that WhatsApp’s actions are against “the very grain of prima facie opinion of the Competition Commission of India’s order” dated March 24.
The union government in March had told the court that the privacy policy violates the 2011 IT Rules on five counts and urged it to restrain the messaging app from implementing it pending adjudication of the case by it. In its written response to a petition challenging the privacy policy, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology had told the court that the policy fails to specify which type of sensitive personal data was being collected, notify the details of personal information collected to the user, provide an option to review or amend the information and withdraw consent retrospectively, and guarantee further non-disclosure by third parties including other Facebook companies.
The replies have been filed in response to a PIL seeking framing of guidelines to protect the privacy and data of users being collected by various social media sites and messaging apps.
The petition, filed by Noida resident Dr Seema Singh along with Delhi residents Meghan and Vikram Singh, has argued that the fissures in law with regard to the data are “quite conspicuous”, and a framework to regulate the same is the need of the hour.
