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CAIT moves SC against WhatsApp

 Confederation Of All India Traders (CAIT) on Saturday has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against WhatsApp's new privacy rules. The body issued a statement claiming that the new WhatsApp privacy policy encroaches upon various fundamental rights of the citizens.

The petition files through advocate Vivek Narayana says the PIL was necessitated due to the failure of the Centre in carrying out its constitutional duty and responsibility to protect the right to privacy and freedom of speech and expression of the citizens of India. The petition states, "WhatsApp, which is rendering essential public services by enabling citizens to communicate, has recently imposed unconstitutional privacy conditions which are not only violative of the law but can impact the national security of the country".

CAIT has also prayed that Union of India must frame guidelines to govern big technology companies like WhatsApp and frame policies which could protect the privacy of citizens and businesses. 

"The petition especially highlights the difference of approach in EU and India countries with respect to the privacy policy of WhatsApp and how the data of Indian users can be misused by such big tech companies", CAIT said, News18 reported.

CAIT National President B.C. Bhatia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal charged that WhatsApp has adopted the approach of 'my way or high way' which is arbitrary, unjustified, unconstitutional and cannot be accepted in a democratic country like India. WhatsApp has been fraudulently collecting personal user data.

 CAIT said at the time of its launch, WhatsApp attracted users based on the promise of non-sharing of user data and strong privacy principles. In 2014, after the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook, when the users were in fear that their personal data will be shared with Facebook, WhatsApp promised that nothing would change in the privacy policy. However, In August 2016, WhatsApp retracted from its promise and introduced a new Privacy Policy which severely compromised the rights of its users and made the privacy rights of users completely vulnerable.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp has announced delaying by three months the implementation of the new privacy policy that has faced a massive backlash with millions of users moving from the platform to rivals like Signal and Telegram.

The Facebook-owed company said that the policy change was originally scheduled to come into effect on February 8.

"We're now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8", said WhatsApp. "We're also going to do a lot to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security work on WhatsApp. We'll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15".

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