A public-interest litigation has been filed in the Delhi high court by two Indian students asking for a rollback of recent policy updates by the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp. Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi asked the court to order the government to frame guidelines for messaging apps so that user privacy isn’t compromised.
After examining the petition the court has issued notices to WhatsApp, Facebook, the government and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asking them to document their stand for the court.
WhatsApp which had been acquired by Facebook had changed its privacy policy to share data with Facebook and allow targeted ads and direct messages from businesses. While responding to the petitioners’ concern WhatsApp said it doesn’t intend to share user content with Facebook except user names and phone numbers.
WhatsApp has recently made it clear that their encrypted messages would stay private and that no one else can read them. The company also said that use of the app is voluntary.
