Supreme Court pulls up WhatsApp over privacy policy

The apex court said, "You may be $ 2-3 trillion company but people's privacy is more valuable for them and it is our duty to protect their privacy."

While seeking response from the Centre and the instant messaging service in a fresh petition seeking protection of the citizens in privacy policies, Chief Justice SA Bobde-headed bench said, "We will issue notice in the matter."

The bench also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asserted that the people think that if somebody messages to someone then the whole thing is disclosed to Facebook.

Petitioner one Karmanya Singh Sareen, through Advocate Shyam Divan, submitted that the Indian users are getting lower standards of privacy in comparison to European users

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Arvind Datar, appearing on behalf of Whatsapp, argued that Europe has a different set of laws and the new privacy policy of the messaging service is similar to those in United States, Australia and other countries.

The Delhi high court is already seized the matter, Sibal noted.