A high court in new Delhi, India has stopped the sharing of user information between instant messaging platform, WhatsApp and its parent facebook, NDTV India reports.
This decision came as a result of the lawsuit by Karmanya Singh, a second-year student of imperial college London, and Shreya Sethi, a final year law student in Amity University.
The students challenged the new policy which is supposed to take effect from September 25.
The court has ordered that information, data and details of individuals existing before the 25th of September should not be shared.
Whatsapp responded to this by saying that the use of the application was optional and as such those who want to opt out are free to do so.
In August, WhatsApp announced it would begin to share information and data with facebook. It stated that sharing some information like phone number of users will help tackle spam and abuse as well as offer better friendship suggestions and relevant adverts.
Many Nigerians reacted to this new policy, by changing their privacy policy on the application. Messages had trended on the platform and other social media platforms suggesting that individuals can opt out of data share.
However, many do not like the new policy, as they believe it is too invasive and some are already opting out of the platform.
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