The Delhi High Court has said that if a WhatsApp user felt that their data was compromised, they could delete the social media application from their phones, reported Bar and Bench. The High Court made the remarks while hearing a plea that raises concerns on the platform’s updated privacy policy.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said, “It is a private app. Don’t join it. It is a voluntary thing. Use some other app. What is your grievance? I can’t understand your concern. If you feel WhatsApp will compromise data, delete WhatsApp.”
The court also said that if terms and conditions of most mobile applications were 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 High Court asked the petitioner to explain the concerns related to WhatsApp sharing data. To this, lawyer Manohar Lal, representing petitioner and advocate Chaitanya Rohilla, said that WhatsApp shared the information globally. “Everything they gather from us is shared,” the petitioner’s counsel said. The court then asked the information and broadcasting ministry for its stand on the matter, to which it said the matter needed analysing.
WhatsApp has challenged the maintainability of the plea, saying that users had the option not to use the business app. The counsel of its parent company Facebook said: “Let the petitioner be reassured that all chats between friends, relatives, etc will be encrypted and safe.”
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