New policy to be idle until Data Protection Bill comes into effect: WhatsApp to Delhi HC

New Delhi: In a significant development on its fight with the Centre over data privacy rules, WhatsApp on Friday told the Delhi High Court that it would not enforce its updated privacy policies until the Personal Data Protection Bill coming into force.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing WhatsApp, submitted before a bench comprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, "We will not enforce it until the Data Protection Bill will come out. In our case the government is the administrator of the rules...we said okay, we will wait till the Bill."

Whatsapp also clarified before the bench of Chief justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that it would not limit the functionality for users who are not opting for a new privacy policy in the meantime.

This development comes after the new Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made it crystal clear within minutes of taking charge that the "law of the land is supreme" and no one can afford to disrespect it.

Salve also informed that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has communicated to WhatsApp that it feels that its privacy policy is against the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information), Rules 2011.

He further added that if the Bill is enforced at a later stage, WhatsApp will conform to the parliamentary law.

In June, the Delhi High Court refused to stay a notice issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), asking WhatsApp to furnish certain information in connection with the probe, ordered in March, on the instant messaging app's new updated privacy policy.

WhatsApp's privacy policy was first announced in January and the initial roll-out was scheduled for February but, the platform delayed it till May 15, citing concerns around it. WhatsApp had said that it will use these three months to educate users and make them understand that their data is still safe.

One of the debatable points in the initial policy was that WhatsApp accounts of users who refuse to accept it will be deleted. This led to an immediate backlash and a lot of users started moving to other platforms like Signal and Telegram.

Later, WhatsApp announced that it will not delete the accounts of users but would limit the functionality of the app for them. This meant that while users will continue to receive messages or calls, they won't be able to reply to them. This made users confused about how the app will work after the restrictions come in.