Deepali Kalia –
The Central government informed the Delhi High Court that Whatsapp is acquiring “trick consent” from its users for its updated privacy policy of 2021 by “pushing notifications” to them.
The users who have not accepted the updated 2021 privacy policy are being daily bombarded with notifications, stated the Central government in its additional counter affidavit is submitted to the court.
“Respondent No.2 (WhatsApp) has unleashed its digital prowess to the unsuspecting existing users and would like to force them to accept the updated 2021 privacy policy by flashing such notifications at regular intervals. The game plan is very clear, i.e., to transfer the entire existing user base committed to the updated 2021 privacy policy before the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill becomes the law.” the affidavit stated.
The central government, therefore, demanded that the app should be restrained from indulging in such “anti-user” practices.
It was further stated by the Centre that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has prima facie concluded that Whatsapp has violated the provisions of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 “through its exploitative and exclusionary conduct, in the garb of policy update”.
In order to ascertain the full extent and impact of data sharing through involuntary consent of users a thorough investigation is needed to be carried out, the Central government stated in its submission.
The central government had filed an affidavit on PIL by Dr Seema Singh, Meghan and Vikram Singh which sought directions for the Central government to order Whatsapp to either recall its updated privacy policy or give its users an option to opt-out of it.
It was also earlier claimed by the Central government that the new policy violated the Information Technology Rules of 2011.
Consequently, the government demanded that the social networking app should be stopped from implementing its new policy till the dispute regarding it is resolved.
