Defying the orders of the Delhi High Court regarding sharing of the user’s account information and data that has been collected till September 25, with its parent company, Facebook, WhatsApp has gone against the court rule and has said that it will share the information with Facebook as it had planned earlier.
According to a report from Mashable, the order from the Delhi High Court has not made any impact on the new planned changes of WhatsApp’s in its terms and privacy policy.
The Court Verdict
Earlier, on September 23, the division bench which seated the Chief Justice and the Justice said that WhatsApp should not share the data and information that has been collected from its users over the last few years till September 23, 2016, with Facebook or with ant other related company, standing by its old privacy policy. The court had ordered WhatsApp to delete the complete data of the users, who chose to opt out of the social messaging app after its new privacy policy had come into force. The court also ordered that even the data of the users who choose to agree with the new privacy policy and not opt out of the messaging app should also be deleted up to September 25, 2016.
The bench reportedly said that they had taken a note of the fact that according to the new privacy policy of WhatsApp, the users are allowed to choose with the given option to delete their WhatsApp account at any given point of time, in the event of which, the data and information of the users should also be deleted from the servers of the instant messaging app. Therefore, the court said it was of the view that the choice is up to the existing WhatsApp users whether they want to or do not want to share their information with Facebook, and can opt for deleting their account.
The court had also directed the Indian government to consider the issue regarding the functioning of the instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and has requested them to take appropriate decisions with respect to the feasibility of bringing the social messaging app functions under the framework of the statutory regulations.
WhatsApp’s Actions
WhatsApp had made extensive changes to its terms and privacy policy on August 25, 2016. According to the new criterion, the instant messaging app company would share the personal information of its users including data like phone numbers etc. with Facebook, its parent company. However, WhatsApp had given a time period of 30 days for its users if they wished to opt out of its new privacy policy, which expired recently on September 25.
In response to the Delhi High Court’s order against sharing of user data with Facebook, a spokesperson of WhatsApp was quoted saying on Thursday in a statement, that the ruling giving by the court will not have any impact on the company’s earlier planned updates of the terms and policy of service.