NEW DELHI, Feb 3 — India’s apex court, the Supreme Court of India, on Tuesday came down heavily on Meta platforms, WhatsApp in particular, over their privacy policy, saying it would not allow them to exploit the personal data of Indians, reported Xinhua.

Meta, an American technology company, owns major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. Millions of Indians use these platforms for exchanging text and video messages and video reels on a daily basis.

While hearing appeals filed by Meta platforms challenging the judgement of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), India’s top-most court’s three-judge bench said: “You cannot play with the right of privacy of this country. You are making a mockery of the constitutionalism of this country. We will not allow the rights of any citizen of this country to be damaged.”

Meta had filed appeals against NCLAT’s judgement upholding a penalty of over 2.13 billion Indian rupees (around RM93.1 million) imposed by the Competition Commission of India over WhatsApp’s privacy policy. Later, the penalty amount was reportedly deposited.

Questioning the effectiveness of consumers’ consent to WhatsApp’s “take it or leave it” policy, Chief Justice Surya Kant said that there were millions of poor and less-educated people who would agree to it without understanding the repercussions.

“Will a poor woman selling fruits on the street understand your policy? Will your domestic helper understand it? You may have collected data from millions of people. This is a decent way of committing theft of private information, and we will not allow it,” an online report by India Today quoted the chief justice as saying. — Bernama-Xinhua