New Delhi: WhatsApp has filed a legal complaint in Delhi against the government seeking to block regulations coming into force today that experts say would compel the US-based Facebook unit to break privacy protections, reports said.
“Requiring messaging apps to ‘trace’ chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy,” WhatsApp said in a statement today.
“We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users. In the meantime, we will also continue to engage with the government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us,” said a spokesperson of the Facebook unit.
The petition asks the Delhi High Court to declare that one of the new rules is a violation of privacy rights under the constitution of India since it requires social media companies to identify the ‘first originator of information’ when authorities want it.