Facebook, WhatsApp to come under regulation : SC

Facebook, WhatsApp could soon come under some sort of regulatory regime. Report says the issue came up during the petition in the Supreme Court, which has sought to challenge the changes in the privacy policy of WhatsApp and Facebook.

DoT told the court it was looking at some sort of regulatory regime for OTT (over the top) players and services like Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, etc. It is not clear if this will be announced soon.

A petition was filed last year in the Delhi High Court against the change in privacy policy by WhatsApp. Last year in August, WhatsApp had announced it will start sharing of the data with Facebook in order to improve ‘user ad’ experiences.

In the petition filed with the Supreme Court, the petitioners Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi have argued that Delhi High Court judgement from September 2016, doesn’t do much for protection of privacy of WhatsApp users.