WhatsApp told the Delhi high court on Friday that it has “voluntarily agreed to put on hold” its new privacy policy until India enacts the proposed data protection law. Users will not be forced to accept new terms, changing their previous stance.
WhatsApp, represented by senior advocate Harish Salve, told a bench of chief judge DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh that it would not force users to consent to the new policy, but that it would continue to notify them about it.
“The update which triggered the inquiry of CCI is, for the present, we have voluntarily agreed to put it on hold…We will not compel people to accept…We will continue to display our updates from time to time to people who have not accepted. In addition, we will display the update whenever a user chooses relevant optional features, like when a user communicates with a business receiving support from Facebook,” Salve told the court.
The company’s stance on Friday varies considerably from what it claimed on May 17, when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was defending WhatsApp at the time, warned the court that user accounts may be deleted if they refused to accept the new privacy policy.
Sibal stated that WhatsApp did not delay its privacy policy update, which went into effect on May 15. He stated that the accounts would not be deleted immediately, but rather that people would be encouraged to enroll.
The controversy arises from WhatsApp making it mandatory for users to consent to Facebook companies sharing data about their interactions with businesses on the app (not including the actual message contents) if they wish to keep using the service.
The court was hearing Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp’s appeals against a single-judge order allowing the competition regulator CCI to begin an investigation into WhatsApp’s privacy policy.
Salve argued that because the policy is on hold, the investigation’s base — the privacy policy — has stalled, and the CCI inquiry has “become academic.”
For Facebook, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that because the Supreme Court is hearing an appeal against WhatsApp’s privacy policy, the CCI cannot investigate above a superior constitutional body.
While refusing to allow an impleadment application opposing WhatsApp’s plea, the court set a date for the case will be heard on July 30.
