New Delhi, February 3, 2026, 20:42 (IST)
India’s top court on Tuesday warned it could reimpose a ban on Meta-owned WhatsApp sharing user data with other group companies. Chief Justice Surya Kant called the platform’s privacy policy “very cleverly designed to mislead users,” according to two lawyers present in court. (Reuters)
The bench asked Meta and WhatsApp to file an affidavit with a clear undertaking that user data will not be shared for advertising, and signalled it could step in if the companies refused. It gave them time, listed the matter for Feb. 9 and added the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as a party to the case. (mint)
Judges also drilled into what they called “hidden charges” of a free service: the value of user behaviour data that can be fed into online advertising systems. Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the court wanted to examine metadata — information about how people use the service, not the content of messages — and how that data is monetised. (The Indian Express)
The dispute stems from a November 2024 order by the Competition Commission of India that fined WhatsApp and Meta about ₹213.14 crore ($25.4 million) and barred data sharing with Meta entities for five years. DataReportal estimates Facebook has 403 million users in India and Instagram 481 million; WhatsApp says it shares items including phone numbers, transaction data, business interactions and device information with Meta, while regulators said users had no opt-out. Meta agreed in 2023 to clarify privacy-policy changes in the European Union after it was accused of failing to do so. (CNA)
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, called the policy “exploitative” for commercial use of personal data. The chief justice responded: “If you can’t follow our Constitution, leave India. We won’t allow citizens’ privacy to be compromised.” (Ndtv)
Meta and WhatsApp’s lawyers argued the content of messages is protected by end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and recipient can read chats. Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Akhil Sibal told the court the penalty had been deposited, and said an earlier tribunal order already addressed data-sharing limits — a point challenged by the regulator’s counsel. (Live Law)
WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India, magnifying the stakes of any court-ordered limits on data sharing. (TechCrunch)
The flashpoint is WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy-policy update, which gave users a blunt choice: accept new terms or delete the account, with no real opt-out for data sharing. (India Today)
The Supreme Court has not ruled, and the next hearing will test whether Meta and WhatsApp are willing to put limits in writing while the appeal runs. The bench listed the matter for Feb. 9 and warned the appeals could be dismissed without an undertaking on data sharing. A narrower interim curb would not shut WhatsApp, but it could still limit how Meta links user activity across services for ad targeting and future policy rollouts. (Scobserver)
