"It's Voluntary, Use Some Other App": Delhi High Court On WhatsApp Policy

WhatsApp has faced a ton of backlash for its privacy policy update over the past couple of weeks. The company has tried to clarify new changes but had to ultimately delay the roll out to give users more time to review the policy.

An advocate in India, however, took it upon himself to challenge WhatsApp and its intrusive privacy policies in the Delhi High Court.
In response to this , the Delhi High Court today stated that accepting the new privacy policy of social messaging app WhatsApp was a "voluntary" thing and one can choose not to use or join that platform if one did not agree with its terms and conditions.
"It is a private app. Don't join it. It is a voluntary thing, don't accept it. Use some other app," 
The court also said that if the terms and conditions of most mobile apps are read, "you would be surprised as to what all you are consenting to".
"Even Google maps captures all your data and stores it," the court said.
The court further said it could not understand what data would be leaked according to the petitioner and since the issue requires consideration, it will be listed on January 25 due to paucity of time on Monday.

The central government also agreed with the court that the issue needs to be analysed.

WhatsApp and Facebook, represented by 

Advocate Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the plea was not maintainable and many of the issues raised in it were without any foundation.

They further told the court that private chat messages between family and friends would remain encrypted and cannot be stored by WhatsApp and this policy would not change in the new policy.

The change in policy would only affect the business chats on WhatsApp, they said 

The petition by a lawyer has contended that the updated policy violates user right to privacy under the constitution.

The plea has claimed that the new privacy policy of WhatsApp allow full access into user online activity without there being any supervision by the government.

Under the new policy , users can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebook -owned or third party apps.

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