The Supreme Court (SC) recently asked the law of authority to make sure that 165 million Indian users are not entrapped in any aspects by platform providers like WhatsApp application, which is giving free services to its customers. The government also declared the apex of court that it was in the method of progress a regulatory leadership on information protection which would be confined in nature.
Mr. bench, which is listen a query to the privacy method of the WhatsApp application platform, also questioned whether the gigantic messaging service can demand any condition on its consumer here which violated at any portion of the Constitution for this service.
While asking the queries about the instant messaging service why the universe has reacted to its present privacy method, the bench said nobody needs to share his or her own private data in entirety.
K K Venugopal, who is the senior advocate, representing the Facebook, told to the bench that they were not providing any responsive or private data and since the India was switching to digitization, the service provided by the WhatsApp service was advantageous as it was an end-to-end encrypted device. He also said that there are privacy rules in some countries. It is a thing which should be left to the rules of India.
At the same time, the Centre told to the apex law, which would now know the issue on the month of July in the previous year that they were in the method of making a regulatory system to deal with the matter. ASG of Mr. Tushar Mehta said that at the starting, the central government is dedicated to the freedom of choice and right to security to the citizens. This is absolute and they are authorized to this, and he also said that they are already in the same process of doing it the regulatory regime.
Therefore the ASG told to bench that they are in the process of creating either a sanctioned rule or the executive guidelines, which would be confined in nature, on the data protection.
During the day-long listen, Mr. Venugopal said that there was no rule framework at the present to deal with the problem but most of the prayers desired by the applicant were protected under the rules of the Information Technology Act of the year 2011.
He also told that about these laws has the framework, and matter which has been increased during the days. My compliance is that the plea is not maintainable, and he also said that it was an issue of the policy. He also said they were observing with the provisions of the rules and laws which were in the place in India.
The senior advocate Mr. K V Vishwanathan, coming for the Internet Freedom Foundation called as IFF, an mediate in the case, said that still, this law would apply to the WhatsApp and the Facebook app, but the whole issue which including the feature of the metadata, impending before the apex court, was not covered the issue.
The bench and the Venugopal discussed and he asked Venugopal that bench finds the laws which are defined that there has to be a concession if the people are sharing the sensitive personal data. Suppose the concession is not taken efficiently then what is the act of the constitutional court.
Responding to the question, the senior counsel said that they were not gathering any personal or any sensitive data and collecting only the phone numbers, device ID number, registration details, and the last seen status were shared by others.
These are fully non-sensitive and neutral data and no concession is needed for it, and he said while discrediting the claims of the applicant that they produce or use the metadata.
Madhavi Divan, who is the Advocate, coming for 2 students named as Shreya Sethi and Karmanya Singh Sareen who have challenged the policy, told to the court that after the privacy method of 2016, where the personal data was shared and it was collected by the WhatsApp services which were used for the commercial use.
She said that the privacy policy is clear but it displays that data is shared. Data sharing is the business type and that is why the Facebook had collected WhatsApp platform for $19 billion. It data sharing is a gold mine. To say that they are not sharing data is opposite on the face of it, and also she said that despite end-to-end encryption method, metadata is collected by the service.
To this, the bench said that the matter would be whether they actually sort collection data. Therefore they are not involved with their income.
Senior counsel Mr. Siddharth Luthra, attending the case for the Indian arm of the Facebook firm, told the bench that no one can approach any messages the importance it is end-to-end encrypted.
The bench, however, asked it can you violate Indian rules in the name of the extended operation. During the hearing, the bench asked counsel of WhatsApp, have you given any kind of attempt before the European Union that you will not share any kind of data with the Facebook service?”
Therefore the lawyer said there are no such attempts which are given by them but there is data secure authority in the European countries.
To this, the bench reply, ignore that, we are the data safety authority here. You must care for a world standard.
The bench said that they can secure our citizens. It is our duty, a constitutional responsibility. WhatsApp application and the Facebook application have the business interest. Here it is about the community interests. They do not think anyone would like to share his or her data in the entirety and therefore indicating that they may also pass a temporary order in the matter until the time the Centre comes out with the rules and regulation.
However, Mr. Venugopal said they are able to give a written legal declaration that not even a single message is read by anyone else while also grading up the matter of right to the privacy.
The bench said that they are not sitting in the holiday to pass a temporary order. They are sitting so that we can send a judgment as soon as possible.
Venugopal, however, managed that there were a law control and the court order petition which is register before the Delhi High Court before was not maintainable.
On the matter of maintainability, the Centre said they were bounded to make sure freedom of choice of the users.
Arguing on the feature of the maintainability, Divan said the instant messaging service was providing the platform by using the public property and they have a public duty for it.
The apex court is hearing the request assailing the Delhi High Court law judgment on the ground that no remedy was granted for the data which is shared by the users after the month of September 25 in the year 2016 which add up to breach of fundamental rights under the Articles 19 and 21 of the establishment.
It had for the month of January 16 needed the responses from the Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the appeal that secrecy of over 157 million Indians has been imposing by the social networking sites like WhatsApp and the Facebook application for asserted the commercial use of the personal communication.
About Author: Anand Rajendran is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dectar a well-known Software products development and Mobile App Development Company based in Chennai, India. He has extensive experience in building and leading innovative and collaborative software development teams to deliver major software applications like Scimbo – Whatsapp Clone Script. He loves exploring new things and sharing his knowledge with others.
