Policy & Regulation
India’s Supreme Court rebukes Meta over WhatsApp privacy
India’s Supreme Court has blocked Meta from sharing WhatsApp user data during an ongoing appeal, citing concerns over privacy and the platform's market dominance.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of India delivered a sharp rebuke to Meta regarding the privacy of Indian users. The judicial body, hearing an appeal over WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy, ruled that it will not allow Meta and WhatsApp to share information while the appeal is pending. The legal dispute stems from a 2021 update to WhatsApp’s privacy policy that required users in India to accept broader data-sharing terms with Meta or stop using the service.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Surya Kant, presiding over the case alongside Justice Joymalya Bagchi, warned Meta’s lawyers, “You cannot play with the right to privacy” of users. Kant stated that the court would not allow the companies to share even a single bit of information while the appeal is pending. He characterized WhatsApp as a monopoly in practice in India, where the platform has more than 500 million users. Kant questioned how users with limited digital literacy, such as an impoverished street vendor selling fruit, could be expected to grasp how their data was being used or give meaningful consent in a market where the app is the default communications platform.
Meta’s lawyers asserted that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted—a security method where only the communicating users can read the messages—making them inaccessible to the company. They argued that the privacy policy did not weaken user protections or allow chat content to be used for advertising. However, the competition regulator previously imposed a ₹2.13 billion (around $23.6 million) penalty, finding that the policy abused WhatsApp’s dominant position. Meta’s lawyers stated that this penalty has already been paid. To widen the scope of the proceedings, the court agreed to add the IT ministry—India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology—as a party to the case, adjourning the matter until February 9 to allow Meta and WhatsApp to explain their data practices in greater detail.
The regulatory scrutiny extends beyond India. In the U.S., authorities have reportedly examined claims that WhatsApp chats may not be as private as the company asserts, raising broader questions about how encrypted messaging platforms handle user data.
Why it matters
The Supreme Court of India’s intervention in the appeal signals strict judicial scrutiny over data monetization and user consent in WhatsApp’s largest market. The outcome could set a precedent for how tech platforms manage user data and privacy policies in India.