WhatsApp' decision to delay privacy changes a positive step: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Saturday hailed the WhatsApp’s decision to postpone new terms of service till May after global criticism over data-sharing with Facebook.

"Whatsapp’s decision to delay the change of privacy policy is certainly a positive step", the federal minister said in his tweet.

“Companies like Facebook affect too many people and it’s important that in such critical decision making involve a wider section of consumers and data protection must be ensured at all times,” he said.

The minister's response came just after the WhatsApp announcement of putting off its new business plans till after May stating that "no one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8".

Soon after WhatsApp announcement regarding data sharing with Facebook, a large number of consumers criticized the decision and joined the other alternative platforms while quitting WhatsApp due to privacy risks.

In its message today, WhatsApp seemed to have postponed acting on the above deadline.

"No one will have their account suspended or deleted on Feb 8 and we'll be moving back our business plans until after May," it wrote.

WhatsApp said that it will give plenty of time to users for them to review and understand the terms of use.

"Rest assured we never planned to delete any accounts based on this and will not do so in the future."