The Supreme Court's move for a constitutional bench to decide on a petition that challenged the privacy rules of WhatsApp stems from the fact that India lacks either privacy or data protection laws that protect the interests of citizens.
The apex court has sent notices to the Union government, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), WhatsApp and Facebook. A five-judge bench will hear the case on April 18.
In August last year, WhatsApp changed its privacy policy. It would, it said, share the numbers of messaging app users with parent Facebook, for targeting with advertisements. Two students, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya