Bengaluru, Feb. 24 -- Online messaging platform WhatsApp LLC on Monday told the Supreme Court of India that it does not read users' personal messages, does not sell user data, and does not use private chats to target advertisements, asserting that all personal communications remain end-to-end encrypted and inaccessible even to the company. At the same time, it cautioned that a blanket prohibition on any data sharing with its parent, Meta Platforms, would be detrimental in multiple ways -- undermining user choice, impairing legitimate business functions, and adversely affecting thousands of small Indian enterprises that depend on digital advertising to survive. Opposing a complete embargo on data sharing, WhatsApp argued that such a restriction would be disproportionate and contrary to the balance sought to be achieved by competition and privacy regulators. It submitted that a total ban would remove users' ability to opt into certain features, weaken safeguards designed to measure advertising effectiveness and prevent fraud, and disrupt an ecosystem that enables micro, small and medium businesses to reach customers cost-effectively. The company made these submissions in an affidavit filed before a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymala Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, which is hearing a batch of appeals and cross-appeals by WhatsApp, Meta and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the November 4, 2025 ruling of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal upholding a Rs.213.14 crore penalty over WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy. In November 2024, the CCI held that WhatsApp had abused its dominant position in the messaging market by imposing a "take-it-or-leave-it" privacy policy that expanded data sharing with Meta as a condition for continued access to the service. While the NCLAT upheld the monetary penalty, it set aside the CCI's five-year ban on data sharing for advertising purposes, observing that such a restriction could disrupt WhatsApp's business model. The tribunal later restored user-choice safeguards and directed WhatsApp to implement clearer opt-out mechanisms. During the previous hearing on February 3, the bench led by CJI Surya Kant expressed deep skepticism over WhatsApp's consent framework, calling the policy a "decent way of committing theft of private information" and observing that users "pay" for the supposedly free service with their data. The Court restrained WhatsApp from sharing any user data in the interim and said it would not permit the "exploitation of even a single" Indian citizen's personal data. On Monday, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Meta, told the Court that the company would not press for an interim stay of the NCLAT's directions and would comply with a previous CCI order by March 16. This directive requires WhatsApp to give users greater control over whether their data is shared with other Meta companies....