Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp on Friday informed the Delhi High Court that it has voluntarily put its new privacy policy on hold and that users will not be compelled to opt for the updated terms until a data protection bill comes into force.
The messaging app also told the court it won’t limit the functionality of its platform to users who choose not to opt for the new privacy policy in the meanwhile.
Appearing for the instant messaging platform, Senior Advocate Harish Salve said, “We voluntarily agreed to put it (the policy) on hold… we will not compel people to accept.”
“We said we [WhatsApp] will not enforce it [the new privacy policy] until Data Protection Bill will come out,” WhatsApp’s counsel told the High Court.
Salve said that Whatsapp would nonetheless continue to display the update to its users.
The submission was made before the bench of Chief justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, which was 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”s new privacy policy.
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WhatsApp has initially announced its new privacy policy in January and asked users to accept the new policies, but in case they do not do so, their accounts will slowly be deleted. The move sparked massive privacy concerns among the users as well as outrage
On May 25, the messaging platform clarified that it will not limit its functions for users who do not accept the new privacy policy. WhatsApp has drawn massive criticism from users globally, including India, over concerns that data was being shared with its parent company, Facebook.
