Whatsapp Privacy Policy: Hearing on the petition challenging WhatsApp’s policy now on January 17

The WhatsApp Privacy Policy case was heard in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Two students have filed a petition challenging the policy of WhatsApp. It says that sharing the details of users with Facebook or anyone else, the company that owns WhatsApp, is a violation of their privacy and freedom of expression. During the hearing, the Center said that India’s users cannot be underestimated compared to other countries of the world. A new bill is coming in this matter. Following the Centre’s argument, the apex court postponed the hearing till next year. The court will now hear the petition challenging the policy of WhatsApp on January 17, 2023.

According to the news agency report, Justice K. A five-member Constitution bench headed by M. Joseph has asked all the parties in the matter to present arguments by December 15. The bench also included Justice Ajay Rastogi, Justice Aniruddha Bose, Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice CT Ravikumar.

“We list the matter for final hearing on January 17, 2023,” the bench said. The court heard a petition filed by two students – Karmanya Singh Sarin and Shreya Sethi. In the petition, the agreement made between the two companies was challenged under which users were asked to share information related to them such as photos, videos, text, documents etc. According to the petition, this is a violation of the privacy and freedom of expression of the users.

Talking about other news related to WhatsApp, the popular messaging platform has announced to roll out a new feature called Call Links by the end of this week. With the help of this feature, users will be able to start a new call or join an already ongoing call. ‘Call Link’ option will be added inside the Call tab. Users will be able to create a link for an audio or video call, which can be easily shared on other platforms. Users need to ensure that they are running the latest version of the app. WhatsApp has also announced that it has started testing group video calls on WhatsApp for up to 32 people.