The Supreme Court (SC) has issued notices to Internet companies Google, Twitter and Facebook, and the government of India following a petition which questioned the lack of data localization and the issue of user data sharing by WhatsApp, reports Bar&Bench. The petition was filed by SC Advocate on Record Pallav Mongia. The case was heard yesterday by a 5 bench panel including newly appointed Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice AK Sikri, Amitava Roy, AM Khanwilkar and M Shantanagoudar. An ET report pointed out that, the court had also directed Facebook and WhatsApp to separately submit “sworn” statements on whether they share data collected from its users to third parties. The bench said that it will move forward with the case on basis of statements submitted by both firms. The petition also comes at a time when SC upheld privacy as a fundamental right last month, limiting the rights of the government and companies to make laws/rules that infringe on these rights. WhatsApp’s legal troubles in India started last year when it updated its privacy policy to allow itself to share user data, including phone numbers and contact lists, with its parent company Facebook. Following this, a petition was filed with the Delhi HC in September 2016. The Delhi HC, at that time, ruled that WhatsApp should not to share such information with Facebook. Note that Twitter also updated its privacy policies in May to share user data with third parties. The new petition filed SC advocate Mongia not only looks at data sharing policies, but also…
