We will not allow you to share any data: SC pulls up Meta, WhatsApp over 2021 privacy policy

Issuing a stern warning to instant messaging platform WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms against sharing users’ private data for targeted advertising, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will not allow them to play with the right to privacy of millions of their “silent consumers” in India through the sharing and commercial exploitation of personal data.

“We will not allow you to share even a single information, you cannot play with the right of privacy of this country, let a clear message go on your WhatsApp. You are making a mockery of the constitutionalism of this country," a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant told global technology company Meta and its messaging service WhatsApp, comparing the data sharing to a “decent way of committing theft of private information of users.”

The top court said "People pay you for this. Consumer has no choice. They are told to either walk out of WhatsApp or share their data… You have complete monopoly in the market. We will not allow you to share a single word of people’s personal data…A street vendor, how will she understand these terms and conditions? Can you imagine the kind of language you use! Every such condition must be examined," the CJI said, while questioning how a substantial part of the country would understand WhatsApp's terms and conditions.


By now “you must have taken away millions of bytes of data.. You (WhatsApp) know your commercial interest and you also know how you have made consumers addicted to the application. Everybody uses it," the CJI said, asking “How could a person sitting in rural Tamil Nadu who understood only the native language understand WhatsApp's terms and conditions. WhatsApp isn't here to collect data and sell, but to provide messaging and communication services”.

“Are you ready to give an affidavit undertaking this, otherwise we will dismiss your case, the CJI told the counsel appearing for the two companies.

Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, also part of the Bench, said that every silo of data regarding an individual, irrespective of whether it was private or not, had value.

The court said that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act of 2023, covered only a small factor of privacy. “The DPDP Act only addresses privacy. We would like to examine the rent-sharing of data. Behavioural trends and tendencies can be utilised and monetised. Your (WhatsApp’s) parent company can leverage it for the purpose of online advertising. When we see these companies, one a parent and the other a subsidiary, the leading role is advertising… All over the world, the judiciary would have to go for a more intensive and innovative oversight into these platforms,” Justice Bagchi observed.

Justice Bagchi also said the government has to compare the DPDP Act and European Union’s (EU) strict online governance rules under the Digital Services Act.

“The EU rules consider not only privacy but value also. I may have personal data of variously graded privacy. Privacy is lost as soon as I share certain data. Is it an acceptable jurisprudential idea that once a data is shared there is no value for that data anymore?” Justice Bagchi asked.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Amit Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp and Meta, said that maintaining that users could ‘opt-out’ from having their data shared. They said prior consent was required and the messages sent and received on the Whatsapp platform were end-to-end encrypted.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also told the court that “our private data is not only sold, but it is commercially exploited. We are not only consumers, but also products”.

The Bench also impleaded the Centre, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, as a party in the case.

The court was hearing appeals by Meta and WhatsApp against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s last year’s order that upheld the Competition Commission of India’s Rs 213 crore penalty against Whatsapp for abusing its dominant position in its 2021 privacy policy case. Meta has also challenged the appellate tribunal order asking WhatsApp to give users a choice on sharing data with Meta Platforms Inc or other Meta companies for advertising and other purposes.

In 2021, WhatsApp updated its terms of service and privacy policies under which users were required to accept the new terms, including an expanded scope of data collection and mandatory data sharing with Meta companies, to continue using WhatsApp.

In November 2024, the CCI found that the WhatsApp “take-it-or-leave-it” policy compelled users to accept expanded data sharing with other Meta companies as a condition for continued access to WhatsApp and this amounted to abuse of dominance under the Competition Act, 2002.

The anti-trust body then imposed a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta Platforms and issued a series of directions, including prohibiting WhatsApp from making data sharing with Meta group entities a condition for accessing its services in India, mandating clear opt-in and opt-out choices for users, and requiring detailed disclosures on the nature and purpose of data sharing.

On November 4, 2025, the NCLAT partly favoured WhatsApp and set aside the CCI’s finding that Meta had leveraged its dominance in over-the-top messaging applications on smartphones to protect its position in the online display advertising market in contravention of the Competition Act, 2002.

However, the appellate tribunal upheld the Rs 213.14 crore penalty imposed by the competition regulator. Later, the NCLAT on December 15 restored the regulator’s user-choice safeguards and granted WhatsApp three months’ time to comply with the remedial directions.