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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has been told that as per the information available on the WhatsApp help center, the App removes the old data, if the account of a mobile number is activated on a different device after being deactivated for 45 days.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S V N Bhatti declined to entertain a writ petition filed by a Tamil Nadu resident, Rajeswari.

The petitioner raised concerns over the possibility of misuse of WhatsApp data after a particular number got deactivated due to non usage. 

The court, however, took into record an affidavit by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

"It is clear from the counter affidavit filed by respondent no. 2 – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that the cellular mobile telephone number once deactivated for non usage or disconnected on the request of subscriber, is not allocated to the new subscriber for at least a period of 90 days," the bench said.

The telecom regulator said that it is for the earlier subscriber to take adequate steps to ensure that privacy is maintained. 

"The subscriber can prevent misuse of WhatsApp data by deleting the WhatsApp account attached with the previous phone number and erasing the WhatsApp data stored on the local device memory/cloud/drive," it noted

"Further, as per the information available on the WhatsApp help center, to eliminate enmesh/ confusion in case of re-cycled phone numbers, they monitor account inactivity, and when an account is inactive for 45 days and then the account is activated on a different mobile device, the old account data is removed," the bench noted the submission.

Case Title: Rajeswari Vs Union of India