Won't Enforce New Privacy Policy Till Data Protection Bill Comes Out: WhatsApp Tells Delhi HC

Social messaging platform WhatsApp on Friday (9 July) told Delhi High Court that it will put its new privacy policy on hold in India till a data protection law comes into effect.

Further, Whatsapp also submitted before the bench of Justices D N Patel and Jyoti Singh that it will not limit the functionality for sometime for users who are not opting for the privacy policy.

Appearing on behalf of the social messaging platform, senior advocate Harish Salve said, "Government has asked to shut down the policy. We have said we will not enforce it till Data Protection Bill comes out. That is open-ended because we dont know when the Bill is going to come out...We have said we will not do this for a while. Suppose the Bill allows me to do it, we will have completely different ramifications", reports Bar and Bench.

The court is hearing the appeals of Facebook and its firm WhatsApp against the single-judge order refusing to stop the competition regulator CCI's order directing a probe into WhatsApp's new privacy policy.