‘Won’t share message content with FB’

Messaging service Whatsapp submitted before the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that it would not share contents of messages sent by users with its parent company Facebook, as part of their data sharing policy which is expected to come into effect on September 25. Hearing a plea challenging the new policy of the messaging services, the court has asked WhatsApp and Facebook to respond to the allegations in detail by September 21.

WhatsApp had made extensive changes to its privacy policy on August 25, the first time since it was acquired by Facebook, giving users the option of sharing their account information with the social networking giant. The messaging service gave its users 30 days till September 25 to opt out of the policy.

The submission was made before a bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, who were hearing a PIL against WhatsApp’s recent decision to share user data with Facebook.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for WhatsApp, said there are government regulations in place and the application does not share users’ private messages, contents, photos or data with Facebook. The petition has termed the privacy policy as an eyewash and blatant attempt to make users agree to their policy while installing and using the messenger app. Defending the messaging platform, Mr Luthra said WhatsApp only shares a user’s name and the phone number with Facebook.