'Exit India if you can't...': Meta faces Supreme Court's heat over Whatsapp policy
PTC News Desk: The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly criticised Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, over the app’s privacy policy. The court said companies cannot misuse people’s personal data and warned that it would not allow WhatsApp to share any user information or take advantage of Indian citizens.
The court was hearing a case related to WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy and a ₹213 crore fine imposed on the company by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The company law tribunal had earlier supported the fine. The CCI had also challenged a decision that allowed WhatsApp to share user data for advertising, saying it could lead to misuse of power.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the government, called the privacy policy exploitative and said user data was being used for business purposes. The Chief Justice said that if companies cannot follow India’s Constitution, they should not operate in the country. The court also questioned whether ordinary people, especially poor or less-educated citizens, would be able to understand such complicated privacy policies.
"Sometimes even we have difficulty understanding your policies..." the court ripped into Meta and WhatsApp after being told of an 'opt out' clause, "... so how will people living in rural Bihar understand them? This is a way of committing theft of private information. We won't allow it."
The Chief Justice then offered his own experience as a benchmark.
"If a message is sent to a doctor on WhatsApp... that you are feeling under the weather... and the doctor sends some medicine prescriptions, immediately you start seeing ads..."
- With inputs from agencies
