Meta is a well-known company as it is the parent of one of the most popular social media apps, Facebook. It is in for a major shock as the Delhi High Court has not accepted the plea filed by Whatsapp and Facebook to stop the Competition Commission of India from probing them about the privacy policy released in 2021. Go through the entire article to learn more.
Delhi High Court’s decision
According to various reports, Delhi high court has allowed CCI to go forward with the probe. This order was given by a single judge. According to various reports, Whatsapp released its new privacy policy in January 2021. In that year itself, CCI started its inquiry as it felt that these organizations were misusing their power.
Facebook and Whatsapp’s reaction
Facebook and WhatsApp responded to this probe by challenging it, but the judge’s decision was not in their favor. The single-judge bench of the court rejected their plea. Social media played quite a role in making the judge want to reconsider his decision which is why a vacation bench was formed.
CCI’s Comments
CCI has reportedly said that it was not interested in looking into the privacy complaints. The Supreme Court was already doing that. According to the reports, the argument against these apps is that their new privacy policy will lead to the collection of a lot of data. This would lead to the stalking of consumers and subsequently to target advertising. Target advertising is a form of advertising wherein the main focus is on the particular interests and preferences of a consumer and accordingly advertising various products. This, according to CCI is an abuse of power which is why they have been given full freedom to go ahead with the probe against these apps.
Data collection by Whatsapp
According to various reports, CCI has claimed that the data collection done by Whatsapp using its new privacy policy includes the individual’s location, information about their device, their internet service provider, and the person would whom they would be conversing tomorrow. This leads to the making of a consumer profile which is then monetized and leads to target advertising.
Arguments given by Whatsapp and Facebook
Various responses on social media said that CCI had no business intervening in this issue. The Supreme court was already looking into privacy policy and CCI should not have intervened and started its probe. They also added that CCI is abusing its suo motu jurisdiction. It started focusing on privacy complaints instead of focusing on competition issues. The Supreme court was already dealing with privacy issues.
