The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday issued a robust warning to world expertise firm Meta Platforms and its messaging service WhatsApp, saying they can’t be allowed to share person knowledge for promoting functions underneath WhatsApp’s 2021 privateness coverage.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, together with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, instructed Meta that any continued sharing of WhatsApp person knowledge for promoting wouldn’t be tolerated. The court docket directed Meta to file an affidavit giving a transparent enterprise that it will not share WhatsApp person knowledge for promoting functions, warning that failure to take action might end in its case being dismissed.
“We is not going to assist you to share a single phrase of person knowledge. This stuff should be very clear. In case you are prepared to present an affidavit—an enterprise out of your administration—that’s high-quality. In any other case, we are going to dismiss it. There is no such thing as a query of sharing knowledge,” the bench stated.
The court docket additionally strongly criticised the style by which Meta framed its opt-in and opt-out selections for customers, saying the coverage language was not understandable to peculiar folks.
“The language of your coverage is such that an peculiar person can’t perceive it. What sort of possibility are you giving? Think about a avenue vendor—a poor girl sitting on the road promoting fruits. How will she perceive your phrases and situations about opting in or opting out?” the bench stated, including that the coverage gave the impression to be “very cleverly crafted”.
The Supreme Courtroom gave Meta per week file the affidavit and stated it will hear the matter once more subsequent week earlier than passing additional orders.
Prolonged dispute
The long-running dispute over WhatsApp’s 2021 privateness coverage reached the apex court docket after being examined by the Competitors Fee of India (CCI) and the Nationwide Firm Regulation Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
The Supreme Courtroom is listening to petitions filed by Meta Platforms and WhatsApp difficult the ₹213.14-crore penalty imposed by the CCI, which held that WhatsApp abused its dominant place within the messaging market by forcing customers to just accept its 2021 privateness coverage on a “take-it-or-leave-it” foundation. Below the coverage, customers needed to conform to share extra knowledge with Meta firms to proceed utilizing WhatsApp.
Meta has additionally challenged the NCLAT’s 4 November ruling, which largely upheld the CCI’s findings and the penalty, however put aside a key restriction. On the similar time, the CCI has approached the Supreme Courtroom difficult the NCLAT’s resolution to take away the five-year ban on WhatsApp sharing person knowledge with Meta firms for promoting.
Whereas the NCLAT agreed that WhatsApp’s 2021 coverage relied on coerced consent and harmed person selection, it later clarified that WhatsApp should get hold of person consent earlier than sharing knowledge with Meta firms for each promoting and non-advertising functions, and that it can’t declare open-ended rights over person knowledge.
The dispute dates again to November 2024, when the CCI fined Meta and WhatsApp ₹213.14 crore. After interim aid from the NCLAT in January 2025, the matter reached the Supreme Courtroom, which can now resolve how far WhatsApp can go in sharing person knowledge underneath its 2021 privateness coverage.