Meta is facing major legal pressure in the Supreme Court of India over the protection and privacy of users’ personal information. In a hearing on WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy, the Indian court has made it clear that there will be no compromise on users’ privacy rights.
India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly criticized the US social media giant, saying it would not allow Meta to “play with the privacy rights” of Indian users, and questioned exactly how WhatsApp makes money using people’s personal data.
The court made the remarks while hearing an appeal against a fine imposed on Meta due to its controversial privacy policy in 2021, according to the technology site TechCrunch. The judges have repeatedly raised the question of how much users can actually understand or voluntarily consent to sharing information in markets like India, where WhatsApp has become the de facto main means of communication.
India is WhatsApp’s largest market with more than 500 million users and a crucial region for the expansion of Meta’s advertising business. The judges also questioned the commercial value of the ‘metadata’ generated by the platform in the case.
They wanted to know how this information could be used in Meta’s advertising and AI technology to make money.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Surya Kant said that the Supreme Court will not allow Meta and WhatsApp to share “even a single piece of information” about users while the appeal is pending. Users have no real choice or opportunity to opt-in to WhatsApp’s privacy policy.
Other judges also asked Meta how the company analyzes user data beyond message content.
Justice Joymalia Bagchi said the court wanted to examine the commercial value of user behavior data and its use in targeted advertising. Anonymized or disaggregated data also has financial value.
Government lawyers also said that personal information is not only being collected, but also being exploited commercially.
Meta’s lawyers said that the platform’s messages are “end-to-end encrypted,” meaning that even the company itself cannot see them. The controversial privacy policy did not weaken user protections or allow chat content to be used for advertising purposes.
The case stems from a 2021 WhatsApp privacy policy update that required Indian users to agree to broader data sharing terms with Meta or stop using the service.
India’s competition regulator later imposed a fine of Rs 213 crore, concluding that the policy abused WhatsApp’s dominance in the messaging market.
As that ruling was upheld on appeal, Meta and WhatsApp approached the Supreme Court challenging it. Meta’s lawyers told the court that they had already paid the fine.
The Supreme Court has adjourned the case until February 9 to give Meta and WhatsApp a chance to explain in more detail their data usage processes.
The court, on the advice of the competition regulator, has agreed to include the Ministry of Information Technology as a party in the case, further expanding the scope of the legal process.
Meta did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on this matter.
