Data Protection Bill to be tabled in monsoon session

The Union government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Data Protection Bill was ready and will be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

The statement was made during the hearing in the WhatsApp Privacy Policy case before a five-judge bench. The petitions were filed by the Internet Freedom Foundation and lawyer Karmanya Singh Sareen on the grounds that the new policy is violative of the fundamental right to privacy.

Appearing for the Union government, Attorney General R Venkatramani said that the bill will address all concerns pertaining to data privacy.

Taking note of the Attorney General’s submission, the apex court said that the matter shall be placed before the Chief Justice for the constitution of an appropriate bench in the first week of August.

In 2021, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to say that the platform reserves the right to share some user data with the broader Facebook network, which includes Instagram.

After the update, the messaging giant wrote a letter addressed to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stating that the users who had not yet accepted WhatsApp’s policy would have unhindered access to the messaging app regardless of whether they accepted the policy or not.

Thereafter, in February of this year, the apex court directed WhatsApp to widely publicise the said stand for the benefit of consumers who may not have agreed to the terms of the privacy policy. It also said that the publicity must come through an advertisement on a full page in five national newspapers. Bloomberg