India’s Supreme Court docket on Tuesday delivered an unusually sharp rebuke to Meta, warning that it will not permit the social media big to “play with the precise to privateness” of Indian customers, as judges questioned how WhatsApp monetizes private information.
The feedback have been made as Meta appealed a penalty imposed over WhatsApp’s 2021 privateness coverage. The judges repeatedly requested the corporate how customers can meaningfully consent to data-sharing practices in a market the place the app is just about the default communications platform.
With greater than 500 million customers, India is WhatsApp’s largest market and a key progress space for Meta’s promoting enterprise. Judges within the case query the potential business worth of metadata generated by the platform, and the way such information may very well be monetized throughout Meta’s wider promoting and AI capabilities.
Through the listening to, Chief Justice Surya Kant stated the Supreme Court docket wouldn’t permit Meta and WhatsApp to share even “a single piece of data” whereas the enchantment was pending, arguing that customers confronted little actual selection in accepting WhatsApp’s privateness coverage.
Calling the messaging service a monopoly in observe, Kant questioned how “a poor lady promoting fruits on the road” or a home employee may very well be anticipated to understand how their information was getting used.
Different judges additionally pressed Meta on how person information was analyzed past message content material. Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated the courtroom wished to look at the business worth of behavioral information and the way it was used for focused promoting, arguing that even anonymized or siloed info carried financial value. Authorities attorneys added that non-public information was not solely collected but additionally commercially exploited.
Meta’s attorneys stated the platform’s messages are end-to-end encrypted and inaccessible even to the corporate, arguing that the privateness coverage in query didn’t weaken person protections or permit chat content material for use for promoting.
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June 23, 2026
The case stems from a 2021 replace to WhatsApp’s privateness coverage that required customers in India to simply accept broader data-sharing phrases with Meta or cease utilizing the service. India’s competitors regulator later imposed a ₹2.13 billion (round $23.6 million) penalty, discovering that the coverage abused WhatsApp’s dominant place within the messaging market. That ruling was upheld on enchantment earlier than Meta and WhatsApp moved the Supreme Court docket to problem it. Meta’s attorneys instructed the courtroom the penalty had already been paid.
The Supreme Court docket has adjourned the matter till February 9, permitting Meta and WhatsApp to clarify their information practices in larger element. On the suggestion of the competitors regulator, the courtroom additionally agreed so as to add the IT ministry as a celebration to the case, widening the scope of the proceedings.
Meta declined to remark.
WhatsApp has been going through heightened scrutiny over its information privateness internationally. Authorities within the U.S. have reportedly examined claims that WhatsApp chats will not be as non-public as the corporate asserts, including to broader questions on how encrypted messaging platforms deal with person information.
In India, WhatsApp can also be navigating new regulatory constraints, together with latest SIM-binding guidelines aimed toward curbing fraud, which may restrict how broadly small companies use the messaging service.
