New Delhi: The giant messaging site told a Bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel at the Delhi HC, that it had put its new privacy policy on hold till the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP) comes into force. By putting on hold the privacy policy means, WhatsApp would not restrict any function or feature whether or not the user accepts its terms and conditions which came into force on May 15.
However, it would continue to send updates and messages to such users regarding the new privacy policy.
“We voluntarily agreed to put it (the new policy) on hold…we will not compel people to accept…The government has asked us to shut down our policy. We have said we will not enforce it till the Data Protection Bill comes out. That is open-ended because we don’t know when the Bill is going to come out…We have said we will not do this for a while. Suppose the Bill allows me to do it, we will have completely different ramifications,” senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for WhatsApp, told a division bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh.
The HC then adjourned the case for further hearing on July 30 even as WhatsApp sought 15 days to file its reply to the CCI’s notice.
The HC is hearing appeals by WhatsApp and Facebook against the Competition Commission of India (CCI’s) March 24 decision ordering probe into the updated privacy policy of WhatsApp for breaching the antitrust law.
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