Pakistan: Strong data protection law under study

---

With cyber security a major concern, Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said his ministry is considering introducing a strong data protection law to protect citizens’ privacy. Mr Hussain said cyber security was a major concern and his ministry was taking initiatives to protect personal data of subscribers. He argued that instead of adopting a unilateral approach, such policy changes should have been made after wider consultation. Minister said, WhatsApp may have claimed that they would allow other sister organisations such as Facebook to access certain users’ information for advertisement purposes. But once encryption is removed, WhatsApp’s sister companies will have access to every information of subscribers. It was too soon for the PTA to respond, which was still assessing the new policy and how it would affect users. None of the information of users, which WhatsApp now wants to pass on to other businesses, were not allowed in its previous privacy policy According to a senior official of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), users will likely see advertisements in the future like they do while watching videos on YouTube and on other social media platforms.