New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday said accepting the new privacy policy of social messaging app WhatsApp was a "voluntary" thing and one can choose not to use or join that platform if one did not agree with its terms and conditions.

"It is a private app. Don't join it. It is a voluntary thing, don't accept it. Use some other app," Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said to the petitioner, a lawyer, who has challenged WhatsApp's new privacy policy which was slated to come into effect in February but has been deferred till May.

The court also said that if the terms and conditions of most mobile apps are read, "you would be surprised as to what all you are consenting to".

"Even Google maps captures all your data and stores it," the court said.

The court further said it could not understand what data would be leaked according to the petitioner and since the issue requires consideration, it will be listed on January 25 due to paucity of time on Monday.

The central government also agreed with the court that the issue needs to be analysed.

WhatsApp and Facebook, represented by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi, told the court that the plea was not maintainable and many of the issues raised in it were without any foundation.

They further told the court that private chat messages between family and friends would remain encrypted and cannot be stored by WhatsApp and this position would not change under the new policy.

The change in policy would only affect the business chats on WhatsApp, they said. The petition, by a lawyer, has contended that the updated privacy policy violates users right to privacy under the Constitution.

The plea has claimed that the new privacy policy of WhatsApp allows full access into a user's online activity without there being any supervision by the government.

Under the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps.

The lawyer appearing for the petitioner claimed that the option not to agree with the new policy was given to users in European nations, but not in India.

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Hubballi (Karnataka), May 20: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Monday said the probe into the sensational killing of a woman, Anjali Ambigera, over the rejection of a marriage proposal in this district, would be handed over to the CID.

The Minister met the family of the 20-year-old woman at their residence and assured justice to them.

He said the case will be handed over to CID for further investigation.

Anjali Ambigera was stabbed multiple times at her home at Veerapur Oni here on May 15. Two days after the incident, the 22-year-old accused -- Girish Sawanth -- was arrested from Davanagere, according to the police.

Distressed over Anjali's brutal murder, her sister Yashoda recently attempted to end her life, their grandmother Gangamma Ambigera had said.

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Parameshwara offered condolences to the grieving family and assured justice for Anjali.

"We are going to hand it (case) over to the CID for further investigation," he told reporters here.

After meeting the Home Minister, Anjali's grandmother Gangamma said she pressed for the death penalty for the accused in the case.

The minister also assured compensation and a house for the family after the Lok Sabha elections, she said.

"We have been promised justice by the government. We want the accused to be hanged. The Home Minister assured that the case will be investigated thoroughly and punishment will be given to the accused as per law. We have faith in the minister's promise," she told reporters here.

Anjali's family had said they had complained to the police that the accused had threatened her saying she would meet the same fate as 23-year-old college student Neha Hiremath, who was stabbed to death by a former classmate on her college campus in Hubballi on April 18.

Meanwhile, Parameshwara also visited the residence of Neha, daughter of Congress Councillor Niranjan, and offered condolences to the family.

He said that owing to the elections, he could not visit but as soon as he got to know about Neha's murder and added that he instructed the officials concerned to take appropriate action. Complete information of the case has been obtained, he said.

Neha's father said the investigation of the case was getting delayed and demanded that the probe be completed at the earliest and the accused be hanged.

Niranjan also cited Anjali's murder and said that people have lost faith in the police and appealed to the government to take a tough stand so that such "unpleasant" incidents do not occur in future.

The Home Minister said the investigation into this case has already been entrusted to the CID and they were investigating from all possible angles.

"Investigation will be completed as soon as possible, and justice will be provided. If anyone else is involved in this case along with the accused, I will inform the investigating officers about it, and if they are found to be guilty, action will be taken against them," he assured the family.

Referring to both these incidents, he said, "Because of the model code of conduct, the government cannot give any assurance as far as some support is concerned to both the families. We will definitely do it after the model code of conduct period."

When asked about the allegations by the BJP about the "deteriorating law and order" situation in Karnataka, the Home Minister denied them and told reporters, "It is not true. We have conducted so many festivals in Karnataka without any disturbances and parliamentary elections also went off peacefully."

"In the last one year, there has been no incident of communal violence in Karnataka in any city... In all scenarios in Karnataka, no law and order failure has happened," he claimed.

"I do agree that murders have happened in numbers and this has happened during BJP's time as well. So it is not that only Congress's time murders have happened. We are serious about bringing down this..(murders). We are trying to educate people. Many of them (murders) are domestic in nature or because of property and various other reasons, he said.

The Home Minister said they will try to sensitise the police force and bring down this number of murders in the state.

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