Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has called WhatsApp’s decision to postpone the implementation of its controversial privacy policy change “a positive step”.
The minister took to Twitter to talk about the world’s most popular messaging platform’s decision to delay the changes it plans to implement in its privacy policy, which would include collecting data on its users and sharing it with third-party businesses.
“Whatsapp decision to delay the change of privacy policy is certainly a positive step,” the minister expressed.
He added that companies like Facebook have a significant effect on the lives of the masses therefore its essential that a wider section of consumers and a focus on data protection be involved in any critical decision-making process.
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,” the messaging platform 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 and started considering rival platforms Signal and Telegram.
