SME Times News Bureau | 07 Sep, 2017
The Central
government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it has set up a Committee of
Experts headed by former apex court judge B.N. Srikrishna to study various
aspects of data protection in India and to suggest a draft data protection
bill.
A five judge constition bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice
A.K. Sikri, Justice Amitava Roy, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice Mohan M.
Shantanagoudar was told that Justice Srikrishna committee have been asked to
make specific suggestions for consideration by the government on principles for
data protection in India.
Addressing the constitution bench, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta
said that that after the report comes into being, there is a possibility that a
law regulating data protection will be passed.
Meanwhile, the bench asked both social media site Facebook and instant
messaging app WhatsApp to file affidavits stating what part of the data of
their users they are sharing with third parties under their new privacy regime.
Appearing for WhatsApp, senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that they
were only sharing four things with the third parties - the user's telephone
number, the type of the device being used, its registration and the last time
when the user accessed the app.
As the court said that it would record the statement made by Sibal on sharing
of data, senior counsel Arvind Datar, appearing for Facebook, seemed reluctant
and at that stage, the court asked both WhatsApp and Facebook to file
affidavits.
Directing the listing of the matter on November 20 after both have filed their
affidavits, the court in its order said: "Be it clarified, if the
assertions made in the affidavit would not require any kind of intervention by
this Court, this Court may not pass any interim order."
Assuring the court that WhatsApp was not looking into the data of its users, Sibal
said it was entitled on to do what it wanted, including business, on its
digital platform. As he told the constitution bench that data sharing was too
complex an issue for the judges to understand and decide, Datar also said that
the whole issue was "complex" and requires legislative intervention
since it is a "multifaceted matter".
The court is hearing of a plea by petitioners Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya
Sethi who have challenged the Delhi High Court's September 23, 2016 order
allowing WhatsApp to roll out its new privacy policy but stopping it from
sharing the data of its users collected up to September 25, 2016, with Facebook
or any other related company.