India’s Supreme Court Questions WhatsApp on Privacy

India’s Supreme Court delivered a sharp critique of WhatsApp and parent company Meta during a February 3 hearing, warning that the platform cannot “play with the right to privacy” of Indian users. The remarks came as Meta appealed a ₹2.13 billion (approximately $23.6 million) penalty imposed by India’s competition regulator over the 2021 privacy policy update that required users to accept expanded data-sharing terms with Meta or cease using the service.

Chief Justice Surya Kant emphasized that the court would not permit even “a single piece of information” to be shared while the appeal is pending, highlighting the lack of meaningful choice for users in a market where WhatsApp serves as the dominant messaging platform with over 500 million users. Kant questioned how individuals with limited digital literacy – such as “a poor woman selling fruits on the street” or a domestic worker – could reasonably consent to complex data practices.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi pressed Meta on the commercial value of behavioural metadata, even when anonymized or siloed, and its use in targeted advertising and AI systems across Meta’s ecosystem. Government lawyers argued that personal data is not merely collected but actively monetized. Meta’s legal team maintained that end-to-end encryption prevents access to message content and that the 2021 policy did not weaken core protections or enable chat data to be used for ads. The penalty has already been paid, they noted.

The court has adjourned the matter until February 9, directing Meta and WhatsApp to provide more detailed explanations of their data practices. At the suggestion of the Competition Commission of India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was added as a party, broadening the case’s scope.