NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the way social media platforms WhatsApp and Meta shared the data of private individuals in the name of “data sharing,” and came down heavily on the companies, stating, “You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country.”
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant observed that WhatsApp and Meta must strictly follow Indian laws. “You have to follow the rules of the country. We will not allow to share a single piece of information You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country. You might have taken the data of millions of persons.This is a decent way of committing theft of private information. We will not allow you to use it,” the bench said.
The observations were made while hearing a batch of appeals filed by WhatsApp and Meta, along with a separate appeal by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) challenging one of the findings of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
WhatsApp and Meta have approached the apex court against the CCI’s order imposing a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta over WhatsApp’s 2021 “take it or leave it” privacy policy.
The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, described the practice of data sharing as a “mockery of constitutionalism.” The court questioned how user consent could be treated as valid when people were forced to accept the policy without any real choice. The court pointed out that the finding against the companies was that the consent obtained was “manufactured consent.”
Giving an example, the court asked whether a poor woman selling fruits on the street would be able to understand the terms of the privacy policy. The bench remarked that the companies were fully aware of their commercial interests and how users had become dependent on the app. “Everybody uses it. If the users have a right to opt-out, how will the users know this right exists? Let us see the option and the situation with the user. When it comes to opting out, the information is in a newspaper. How will a person know?” the court asked Meta and WhatsApp.
Appearing for WhatsApp, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said that the company would file a reply, after which the court could examine the matter and pass appropriate orders.
The Supreme Court directed WhatsApp to file an affidavit explaining its privacy policy and how data sharing under the policy works. The matter has been listed for further hearing on February 9.