WhatsApp to Delhi HC: 'Will not compel users to opt for new privacy policy till data protection bill comes into force'

Whatsapp told the Delhi High Court on Friday that till the data protection bill comes into force, it would not compel users to opt for its new privacy policy as it has been put on hold. Whatsapp also clarified before bench of Chief justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that it would not limit the functionality for users who are not opting for new privacy policy in the meantime. [caption id=“attachment_9171681” align=“alignright” width=“1280”]  WhatsApp has told the Delhi HC that it has for now put its privacy policy on hold voluntarily.[/caption] Appearing for the instant messaging platform, Senior Advocate Harish Salve said, ‘We voluntarily agreed to put it (the policy) on hold… we will not compel people to accept.’ Salve said that Whatsapp would nonetheless continue to display the update to its users. 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. On 23 June, the Delhi High Court had refused to stay the Competition Commissionof India’s (CCI) enquiry against WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. A vacation division bench of Justices Anup Jairam Bhambhani and Jasmeet Singh was hearing an appeal by WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook Inc against a single bench order declining to interfere with CCI’s investigation. With inputs from PTI