WhatsApp on Friday told the Delhi High Court it would not restrict the functionality of its messaging app in case a user does not consent to its latest privacy policy and will maintain the approach at least till the future data protection bill comes into effect.

“We will continue to display our updates from time to time to people who have not accepted. In addition, we will display the update whenever a user chooses relevant optional features, like when a user communicates with a business receiving support from Facebook,” Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing WhatsApp, told the court.
“The commitment is that I will not do anything till the parliamentary law comes. Obviously then if parliamentary law comes, you have to fit within that law. If Parliament allows me to have a separate policy for India, I will have it. If it does not allow me, then bad luck. I will then have to take a call,” Salve said.

WhatsApp and Facebook have requested the High Court against the CCI order dated March 24, in which the competition regulator came to a conclusion that the conduct of WhatsApp in ‘sharing of users’ personalised data with other Facebook companies, in a manner that is neither fully transparent nor based on voluntary and specific user consent” appears wrong to users. The CCI had ordered the DG to finish the investigation within 60 days.