We are concerned about sharing of data by Facebook: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed its concern on privacy policies of social media companies like Facebook (now Meta) observing that the sharing and scraping of people’s personal data by these companies needs to be examined [WhatsApp LLC v Competition Commission of India and Anr]..A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Poonam A Bamba said that people are concerned about their privacy and many don’t know if their data is being shared by social media giants with private entities like Cambridge Analytica who then use it for other purposes..Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm which has been embroiled in controversy after the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light. The firm has been accused of collecting Facebook data of millions of people to influence voting pattern in the 2016 Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom as well as the 2016 Presidential campaign in the United States..The remarks came from the Court while hearing appeals filed by Facebook and WhatsApp against the order of the single-judge refusing to interfere with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) probe into WhatsApp’s new privacy policy..Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for Facebook and WhatsApp, apprised the court about the facts of the case. He submitted that the new privacy policy gives the user freedom to not share their data and there is no element of coercion involved.Salve said that this arrangement will continue till the time the government comes up with a data protection bill.He further said the communication on WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted but that is not the case with Facebook where a person puts his life in public domain..However, Justice Shakdher said that it would have been better had Salve been an amicus in the case since this is something that needs to be looked into.“Mr Salve, I must tell you one thing. We are concerned about sharing of data by Facebook...... It would have been better if you were Amicus. I personally feel someone needs to look into this,” he said.Salve replied stating the following:"In London, whenever I open the NDTV app, my wife's shopping list comes to me."Justice Shakdher further said that there have been reports that suggest that these social medial companies have around 5,000 data points on every person and they can predict his/her behaviour in any situation using such data..We are concerned about sharing of data by Facebook.Delhi High Court .Salve said that he has a friend and whenever he goes to Goa a notification pops up on Facebook informing that the person has landed there.Justice Shakdher replied saying it is okay to get such notifications but the problem arises when these companies are able to predict what the person will be doing in Goa..The Court has now listed the case for further hearing on July 21. Lawyers appearing for the petitioner and respondents were asked to file their written submissions, not exceeding five pages, by the next date of hearing.