Whatsapp needs to publicise that users are not bound to accept its 2021 privacy policy: Supreme Court

The apex court ordered Meta-owned WhatsApp to run full-page ads on two occasions in five national dailies" warning users that they do not have to sign the privacy policy.

The Supreme Court of India ordered the messaging app WhatsApp to inform users through newspaper advertisements that they do not have to adopt its privacy policy for 2021 and that changes to the app's operation would not take effect until the next hearing on April 11, 2023.

In a nutshell, it means that those WhatsApp users in the country who haven’t yet accepted the instant messaging service’s privacy policies of 2021, will not face any disruptions in using the application.

The apex court noted WhatsApp's identical stance that it will comply with the provisions in its letter to the government from May 2021.

“It may not be justified at this stage and may require reconsideration,” the court said.

The government and WhatsApp informed the court that the hearing might be postponed until the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill was brought before parliament in March and cleared up all of the issues stated in the petitions that were before it and the hearing may be deferred till then.