India’s top court questions WhatsApp policy of sharing user data with Meta entities

By Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) – India’s top court on Tuesday warned it could reimpose a ban on Meta-owned WhatsApp’s data sharing with other group entities, saying the messaging app’s privacy policy misled users, two lawyers present in court said.

WhatsApp has been locked in a dispute with India’s antitrust regulator since November 2024, when it fined the company $25.4 million and barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with other Meta entities for advertising purposes for five years.

An appeals court later lifted the data-sharing restriction but kept the monetary penalty, prompting both sides to approach the Supreme Court.

During Tuesday’s hearing, India’s chief justice questioned WhatsApp’s privacy policy and said it was “very cleverly designed to mislead users,” the two lawyers said.

“Your privacy policy is designed in such a way that how can a poor elderly woman … or (someone who) comes from a rural area understand your intentions?” Chief Justice Surya Kant said, according to the lawyers.

WhatsApp declined to comment on the remarks, saying the case was sub judice.

India is Meta’s biggest market by user numbers. It does not disclose country-specific figures, but research firm DataReportal estimates Facebook has 403 million users in India and Instagram 481 million.

WhatsApp previously said the ban might force it to roll back or pause some features in India and would hurt its business.

The Supreme Court did not give a final verdict, and will continue to hear the case next week.

Meta’s privacy policy has also been a point of contention elsewhere. In 2023, it agreed to clarify changes to its policy in plain and intelligible language after it was accused of violating European Union law by failing to do so.

The Indian antitrust authority’s 2024 ruling said WhatsApp’s policy gave users the choice of either accepting the changes or risking losing access to the service and provided no opt-out feature.

WhatsApp publicly says it shares with Meta a user’s phone number, transaction data, how they interact with businesses and mobile device information.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi. Editing by Mark Potter)