On Tuesday, the Supreme Court publicly castigated WhatsApp and its parent company Meta concerning the issue of sharing data of users categorically saying that the right of citizens to privacy cannot be watered down in the interests of technology or business strategies.
The highest court during the hearing indicated that the constitutional protection could not be restricted by data-sharing practices. The bench was not interested that personal data is gathered and shared by big tech services and made it very clear that the privacy rights of citizens of this country cannot be played with in the name of data sharing.
The court also doubted whether Meta was relying on user consent and opt-out systems and noted that this is not the main issue. The bench commented that privacy policies are usually written in such a way that the common users can not simply understand. It proceeded to say that doubting the possibility of opt-out options is equivalent to engaging in theft of private information in a very decent manner, as there is an imbalance between technology giants and users.
Going wider on the issue, the Supreme Court ordered that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) be implicated in the case. It was also pointed out by the bench that interim orders would be ruled on February 9.
It also observed these as it listened to appeals submitted by WhatsApp and Meta against a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order. The CCI had fined WhatsApp of its dubious take it or leave it privacy policy that purportedly compelled users to accept the data-sharing terms without any significant option.
The court again underlined its firm position, saying that privacy cannot be violated in the name of the consent, sharing of data or user consent, and indicated that it would take a closer look into the way that large tech corporations manage personal data in India.
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