Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, representing the Union on Thursday informed a constitution bench that it was wedded to an "individual's freedom of choice" though it was willing to debate the finer points of law pertaining to the right to privacy since the same is already under consideration by another Bench of the Court in the Aadhaar matter.

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A five-judge constitution bench was hearing matters on whether WhatsApp sharing user information with its parent company Facebook, violated the citizens' right to privacy. In this regard, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing the petitioner, submitted a list of six issues that could be debated upon.

While submitting his issues, Salve laid out the changes in WhatsApp's user policy since September 2016. Salve said, "Whatsapp User Policy now allows it to retain any videos, picture etc. which are widely circulated. This means they are snooping, picking up data, and sharing it with its parent company — Facebook." Salve clarified that, though the information would not be published in any public domain, he still objected to the snooping.

Entering the fray, the Internet Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group pleaded for intervention as it wanted to participate in the debate on the right to privacy and "assist the court" on this matter. Representing them, KV Viswanathan spoke about the larger issue of metadata collected and used by Whatsapp thus enabling other parties to get private information about the individual user. The metadata was being used target ads towards users.The Constitution Bench has adjourned the case until May 15.

Issues submitted

Right to private communicationRight to keep personal data — financial and otherwise privateUnauthorised access to such communicationsState, its agencies, and private agencies are entitled to privacyWhether service providers have a constitutional duty to protect privacy of personsif State is obligated to protect the constitutional rights of Persons