'Decent way of committing theft': Supreme Court’s stinging words for Meta, WhatsApp

The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on Meta Platforms Inc and its messaging service WhatsApp while hearing their appeals against a competition watchdog order, saying technology companies cannot “play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing”.

The three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, said it would pass an interim order on February 9 and directed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology be made a party to the proceedings.

The court was hearing appeals by Meta and WhatsApp challenging a ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which upheld findings of abuse of dominance by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) while granting limited relief on advertising-related data sharing.

“You can’t play with the right of privacy of this country in the name of data sharing. We will not allow you to share a single word of the data,” the chief justice said, asking the companies to give an undertaking that they would not violate citizens’ privacy.

The bench said privacy rights were zealously guarded in India and observed that WhatsApp’s privacy terms were “so cleverly crafted” that a common person could not understand them.

"A poor woman selling fruits on the streets, will she understand the terms of your policy? Nobody will be able to understand. You might have taken the data of millions of persons. This is a decent way of committing theft of private information," the CJI said.

"We will not allow you to do that... You have to give an undertaking otherwise, we have to pass an order,” he added.

In November 2024, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of ₹213.14 crore on Meta for unfair business ways with respect to WhatsApp privacy policy update done in 2021.

Starting from January 2021, WhatsApp notified users about updates to its terms of service and privacy policies.

The in-app notification, effective from February 8, 2021, stated that users were required to accept these terms, including expanded scope of data collection as well as mandatory data sharing with Meta companies, to continue using WhatsApp.

Under the previous privacy policy, WhatsApp users were given the option to decide whether they wanted to share their data with Facebook, the release said.

The watchdog concluded that the policy, implemented on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis, imposed unfair conditions on users and violated competition law, citing WhatsApp’s dominant position in the market for over-the-top messaging apps on smartphones in India.

It also said sharing WhatsApp user data with other Meta entities for purposes beyond providing the messaging service created entry barriers for rivals in the online display advertising market.

As part of its order, the regulator barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with other Meta companies for advertising purposes for five years and directed Meta to cease and desist from anti-competitive practices and implement behavioural remedies.