'Can't play with citizen privacy:' India warns Meta over data sharing

India's top court on Tuesday criticized Meta, warning that tech giants cannot "play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing" as it heard challenges to an antitrust ruling involving WhatsApp's privacy policy.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi was hearing appeals filed by Meta and WhatsApp against a tribunal decision that upheld findings by the Competition Commission of India, or CCI, on abuse of dominance. The CCI had imposed a $25.4 million fine on Meta.

"You can't play with the right of privacy of this country in the name of data sharing. We will not allow you to share a single word of the data… you cannot violate the right of privacy of citizens," Kant said, addressing the tech giants, according to Press Trust of India.

Meta owns social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as the messaging app WhatsApp.

The judges said the right to privacy is "zealously guarded" in India and noted that privacy terms are "so cleverly crafted" that a common person cannot understand them.

"This is a decent way of committing theft of private information, we will not allow you to do that… you have to give an undertaking otherwise, we have to pass an order," Kant said.

The case stems from a dispute over WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy and the sharing of user data across Meta's platforms. Last November, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal set aside a directive from the antitrust watchdog that barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with other Meta companies for advertising purposes, while upholding the fine.

A year earlier, the CCI penalized Meta for "abusing its dominant position," citing the way WhatsApp's privacy policy was implemented and how user data was collected and shared with other Meta companies.

India is WhatsApp's largest market, with more than 500 million users. Online statistics portal Statista says India had the world's largest Facebook audience as of last October, with more than 403 million users, and also has the largest YouTube audience.