In 2024, the Competition Commission of India had imposed Rs. 213 Crore penalty on Meta, for sharing WhatsApp users' data with its parent company to monetise it through advertisements.
> As Solicitor General Tushar Mehta criticised the “exploitative" policy for sharing user data for commercial purposes, Chief Justice Surya Kant responded: “If you can’t follow our Constitution, then leave India. We won’t allow the privacy of any citizen to be compromised. You can’t play with privacy… we will not allow you to share a single digit of our data". Solicitor General Mehta and counsel for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that user data was being commercially exploited, even if encrypted, and that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act must be considered to protect metadata and ensure user consent, India Today reported.
> As the tech giants claimed informed consent, the SC said that millions of users, including street vendors and rural citizens, cannot understand complex privacy policies ... The court also emphasised that behavioural and commercial exploitation of user data, including targeted advertising based on chat trends, violates users’ rights. The bench took note of instances where users received targeted ads for medicines shortly after private chats with doctors, raising questions about the extent of data monetisation.
In 2024, the Competition Commission of India had imposed Rs. 213 Crore penalty on Meta, for sharing WhatsApp users' data with its parent company to monetise it through advertisements.
> As Solicitor General Tushar Mehta criticised the “exploitative" policy for sharing user data for commercial purposes, Chief Justice Surya Kant responded: “If you can’t follow our Constitution, then leave India. We won’t allow the privacy of any citizen to be compromised. You can’t play with privacy… we will not allow you to share a single digit of our data". Solicitor General Mehta and counsel for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that user data was being commercially exploited, even if encrypted, and that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act must be considered to protect metadata and ensure user consent, India Today reported.
> As the tech giants claimed informed consent, the SC said that millions of users, including street vendors and rural citizens, cannot understand complex privacy policies ... The court also emphasised that behavioural and commercial exploitation of user data, including targeted advertising based on chat trends, violates users’ rights. The bench took note of instances where users received targeted ads for medicines shortly after private chats with doctors, raising questions about the extent of data monetisation.
Source: https://www.news18.com/india/leave-india-if-you-cant-follow-...