Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has termed the decision of messaging platform, WhatsApp to delay the implementation of its much talked about privacy policy ‘a positive step.’

“Whatsapp decision to delay the change of privacy policy is certainly a positive step,” expressed the minister in a tweet post on Saturday.

He said that companies like Facebook effect too many people and “it’s important that in critical decision making involve wider section of consumers and data protection must be ensured at all times.”

WhatsApp made an important announcement on its controversial privacy policy, announcing a three-month delay.

“Thank you to everyone who’s reached out. We're still working to counter any confusion by communicating directly with WhatsApp users. 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 said.

“We will make sure users have plenty of time to review and understand the terms. Rest assured we never planned to delete any accounts based on this and will not do so in the future,” WhatsApp added.

A few days ago, WhatsApp had said that in the first week of next month, WhatsApp will share various data of its users on Facebook, which has made people hesitant since then. On the other hand, it was also facing severe criticism from the public, and people around the world were increasingly leaving WhatsApp and moving to other platforms.

Following the announcement, nearly two billion WhatsApp users around the world criticized the privacy policy, and a large number of people began slamming the policy turning to other apps especially Signal and Telegram, which topped Apple and the App Store.