The Supreme Court today sought responses of the government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on a plea seeking framing of privacy policy to regulate commercial exploitaion of private communication through social networking sites such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
A bench comprising Chief Justice J. S. Khehar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud also issued notice to WhatsApp and Facebook and sought their responses within two weeks.
The bench sought the assistance of Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi in hearing the plea, which alleged that the social networking sites compromise the privacy of interpersonal communication of over 150 million people in the country.
Senior advocate Harish Salve alleged that the privacy of citizens has been infringed by the social networking sites, which amounted to infringement of Articles 19 (Freedom of Speech and Expression) and 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution.
Right to Life includes the Right to Privacy, Salve said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.