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Central Government Moves To Delhi High Court To Restraint Whatsapp Privacy Policy

With Whatsapp to implement their new privacy policy soon, the central government approached the Delhi High Court. They had urged them to put a restrain on the implementation.

Government Sent Affidavit Against Whatsapp

As per the latest reports, the government has sent an affidavit to the Delhi High Court and have requested them to put a restraint on Whatsapp’s new policies.

On February 2, 2021 the court had asked the Central Government’s response over a petition that had challenged the new privacy policy of Whatsapp. This came after Whatsapp asked their users to either consent to share their data with social media giant, Facebook or lose access to their accounts before February 8. However, this policy received a lot of backlash from the users and was eventually put on hold till May 15.

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The petitioners, Dr Seema Singh with the advocate Meghan Singh said that the impact of the new Whatsapp policy could prove to be catastrophic in regards to the data of the Indian citizens.

The plea made by them said that the loophole in law regarding the data seems to be quite visible and a framework to regulate is urgently needed. The plea sought a direction from the Court to the Central government to develop rules, regulations and guidelines that would protect the privacy and the data of the citizens. This would not just only include whatsapp but also all the other organisations that are operating in the country.

In the meantime, the High Court has directed the Central government to inform the authorities at Whatsapp to either wipe out their policy altogether or provide an option to opt of it for the users who had already accepted that.

What Data Will The New Whatsapp Privacy Policy Share?

In the beginning of the year, Whatsapp made a clear announcement that they are changing their privacy policies. The new privacy policy stated that they would be sharing the data with Facebook and other subsidiaries. After the backlash, Whatsapp released a statement and said that the new policy would not hamper the user’s interactions with their friends or family. They also said that they will continue to provide end-to-end encryption.

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However, Whatsapp later clarified that their ability to share data does not expand to Facebook.

As for now, the implementation of the new privacy policy of Whatsapp is halted till May 15, 2021.