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News India Live, Digital Desk: The controversy regarding the privacy policy of WhatsApp is once again at its peak in India. Supreme Court Telegram founder Pavel Durov Has created a sensation on the internet by sharing a 20 year old chat of Mark Zuckerberg. This revelation has raised serious questions on WhatsApp’s claims of ‘end-to-end encryption’.
Supreme Court’s strict comment: “Civilized way of theft”
During a hearing on 3 February 2026, the Supreme Court bench (headed by CJI Surya Kant) took strong exception to WhatsApp’s ‘Take it or Leave it’ privacy policy.
The court said: “You cannot play with the privacy of the country’s citizens in the name of data sharing. This is a civilized way of stealing personal information.”
Ultimatum: The court made it clear that if Meta cannot respect the Indian Constitution and the privacy of citizens, then it can close its business from India.
Pavel Durov’s blast: Zuckerberg’s 2004 chat goes viral
Amid Supreme Court rebuke, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov shared a screenshot of a chat from Mark Zuckerberg’s college days on X.
Chat gist: In this old chat, Zuckerberg was allegedly making fun of those who trusted him and shared their personal information (emails, photos, etc.).
Durov’s taunt: Durov wrote – “Only the scale has changed since 2004. Today the owner of WhatsApp is laughing not at 4 thousand people, but at the 4 billion people who believe its encryption claims.”
Is the data of 400 crore users in danger?
Tech giants like Pavel Durov and Elon Musk allege that WhatsApp is not completely secure.
Metadata Tracking: Even though WhatsApp can’t read messages, it tracks who you’re talking to, when, and for how long.
Backup Protection: Data stored on cloud backup (Google Drive/iCloud) is often not encrypted, making it accessible to security agencies or hackers.
Commercial Use: It was argued in the Supreme Court that the data of Indian users is being ‘sold’ and ‘rented’ for commercial gains.
Meta’s defense: “All allegations are baseless”
Amidst these allegations, Meta spokesperson has said that WhatsApp’s encryption system is world class and the company cannot see the private messages of any user. He has termed the legal cases as ‘frivolous’.
