Current State:

Currently in the portal view of a work item, approvals activity is listed in the work item's Activity thread:

Customers have expressed complaint about this being visible and wish to have it hidden for external portal customers. They do not want it to be shown to the customer if this step has an approval.

Proposed Future State:

Provide a mechanism or setting so that approvals activity can be hidden from the portal view for a work item.

Alternative (e.g. Third Party Plugin):

None known available at this stage