WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court on Friday that it would not force its new Privacy policy on users, or limit functionality for those have opted not to accept those terms and conditions, until the Government passes the Data Protection Bill, which specifies the safe processing of users data.
The High Court bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh were hearing the appeals of Facebook and its firm WhatsApp against the single-judge order refusing to stop the competition regulator CCI's order directing a probe into WhatsApp new Privacy policy.
Appearing for the instant messaging platform, Senior AdvocateHarish Salve said, “We voluntarily agreed to put it (policy) on hold...we will not compel people to accept”, Salve said that WhatsApp would nonetheless continue to display the update to its users.
In the previous hearing on June 23, the High Court refused to stay the CCI notice to WhatsApp.
Last month, the center told the Delhi High Court that WhatsApp was trying to force users in to accepting the new policy before the Personal Data Protection Bill becomes the law.
The IT Ministry- which has now seen a leadership change amid this row, with Ashwini Vaishnaw replacing Ravi Shankar Prasad- pointed out to WhatsApp for its discriminatory treatment of Indian users vis-a-vis those in Europe, and further added that every social media platform has to abide by the law of the land.
WhatsApp and Facebook had challenged the CCI's March 24 order directing a probe into the new Privacy policy.
Source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/whatsapp-privacy-policy-put-hold-till-data-protection-bill-comes-force-152029
