The Delhi High Court has sought response from Whatsapp on a petition against the popular messaging app's decision to share users' data with its parent company Facebook.

A division bench of chief justice G Rohini and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked WhatsApp to file its response on the plea filed by Delhi-based users who raised concern over security of their data shared using the app

The bench asked WhatsApp to explain the facts about the issue before September 21, the next date of hearing.

The plea said privacy of the users was threatened by the new policy announced by Facebook which now owns the mobile messaging service.

The plea also said that the new data sharing policy announced by WhatsApp,Facebook Inc. and Facebook India Online Pvt Ltd severely compromises the rights of its users.

On August 25, WhatsApp made extensive changes to its privacy policy. Under the new norm, it announced it would and could share users' personal information, including their phone numbers, with its parent company Facebook.