Privacy right not absolute, subject to restrictions: Govt on Whatsapp lawsuit

Replying to WhatsApprsquos lawsuit stating that user privacy is in its DNA the Centre on Wednesday said it is recognises that Right to privacy is a fundamental right but it is not absolute and is still subject to reasonable restrictionsUnion Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said ldquothe Government of India is committed to ensure the Right of Privacy to all its citizens but at the same time it is also the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order and ensure national securityrdquoPrasad also stated that ldquonone of the measures proposed by India will impact the normal functioning of WhatsApp in any manner whatsoever and for the common users there will be no impactrdquoldquoAs per all established judicial dictum no Fundamental Right including the Right to Privacy is absolute and it is subject to reasonable restrictions The requirements in the Intermediary Guidelines pertaining to the first originator of information are an example of such a reasonable restrictionrdquo stated a press release by the governmentThe Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology MeitY had asked social media platforms to abide by the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 by May 25 or face strict actionA WhatsApp spokesperson had told IANS that requiring messaging apps to trace chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsAppIt would break endtoend encryption and fundamentally undermines peoples right to privacy We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users the spokesperson stressedThe company said that 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 usThe tussle between Twitter WhatsApp and Facebook and the Union government has reached its nadir with cops raiding Twitter offices in the pandemic earlier this week over the Toolkit controversyWhatsApp has gone to the court as the deadline to comply with the new IT intermediary rules meant for big social media platforms in India ended on Tuesday WhatsApp said that new rules infringe on users privacyAlso Read WhatsApp sues Indian govt over chat lsquotraceabilityrsquo says user privacy supremeWhatsApp has also gone ahead with implementing its controversial user privacy policy from May 15 clearing stating that we will maintain this approach until at least the forthcoming PDP personal data protection law comes into effectWhen the concept of traceability was first proposed in early 2019 dozens of organisations wrote to the Indian government about how such a provision would violate the privacy of Indian usersThe IT rules published earlier this year in addition to calling for traceability risk criminal penalties for noncomplianceWhatsApp has consistently opposed legal action that would break endtoend encryption The company is currently fighting the same before the Supreme Court of Brazil on a similar matterWe also do not believe traceability can be imposed in a way that cannot be spoofed or modified leading to new ways for people to be framed for things they did not say or do Such massive data collection also makes messaging platforms inherently less secure by opening up more avenues for hacking WhatsApp had said earlierThe MeitY had announced its draft new IT Intermediary Guidelines Rules for social media platforms on February 25As per the new rules the social media platforms will have to remove offending content within 36 hours after a government directive or a legal orderThe new rules mandate that the intermediaries including social media intermediaries must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receivingresolving complaints from the users or victimsOn the user privacy policy the Facebookowned platform with over 400 million users in the country has defended its position saying that it continues to engage with the government to resolve the issueWhatsApp said it has sent a reply to the notice by MeitY after the ministry directed the Facebookowned platform to withdraw its controversial user privacy policyWith inputs from agencies