Two Indian students legally challenged Facebook Inc. stating that sharing WhatsApp numbers of users with advertising companies for “relevant” ads threatens the right of millions of users, Bloomberg reported.
Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi filed a PIL, akin to a class action in Delhi High Court demanding that Facebook revert it’s recent policies, asking the government to frame guidelines for messaging apps to prevent a compromise of the privacy of its users.
WhatsApp messages are encrypted by default. However, the messaging app which has been bought by Facebook Inc. in 2014, recently said that it will start sharing users’ phone numbers with its parent-company, allowing for more relevant advertisements and friend recommendations on the social network.
In their petition, Singh and Sethi who are both engineering students said that the changes in WhatsApp’s policies compromise the security, safety and privacy of the data that technically belongs to its users, and its change of policies were a breach of trust.
They also said that “user consent” didn’t hold much meaning in India since most of WhatsApp users can’t read or understand the consequences of the changes in the app’s policies.
Source: Bloomberg