WhatsApp Twist: Delete or Share, High Court tells WhatsApp users

Delhi Hight Court has asked WhatsApp to not share data of its users collected up to September 25, 2016, and data of every user who deletes his/her WhatsApp account before September 25 will have to be deleted from WhatsApp servers.

WhatsApp Twist: Delete or Share, High Court tells WhatsApp users

As we all know messaging platform WhatsApp recently announced that they were updating their privacy for the very first time and will share some user data which also includes your phone number with Facebook.

Now Delhi high court on Friday allowed WhatsApp to roll out its new privacy policy but have some conditions. Delhi high court said that WhatsApp cannot share data of its users collected up to September 25, 2016.

The high court also told WhatsApp that data of every user who deletes his/her WhatsApp account before September 25 will have to be deleted from WhatsApp servers.

We could easily assume that court had given a hint to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy as well as it’s users who don’t want WhatsApp to share any data with Facebook, to delete their account in case they value privacy.

Therefore, users will not have any reason to complain if their WhatsApp details are shared with the parent company Facebook from September 26. The court also asked the Government and Trai to examine the feasibility of such messaging apps into the regulatory framework.

WhatsApp told High court that its new privacy policy doesn’t infringe on the privacy of any users and due to its end-to-end encryption no third part can read the messages and if any user deletes his/her WhatsApp account, the info of that person is no longer retained on its servers.

The court order came on a petition filed by two students Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi who dragged Facebook to court and challenged WhatsApp’s privacy issues. Senior advocate Pratibha M Singh, while arguing behalf of the two students called the judgement “path-breaking”. “It is a major dent on their policy, definitely. WhatsApp will have to make changes” she told press trust of India.

The petitioners allege that while WhatsApp claims in an affidavit that it does not retain messages, the company has contradicted itself by saying it can keep user messages for a longer period of time to improve performance.

The new privacy policy will come into effect on September 25 and allows users to choose if they wanted to accept the new policy.