diff --git a/test/app-test-definitions.js b/test/app-test-definitions.js
index dd683e3..f40e3bb 100644
--- a/test/app-test-definitions.js
+++ b/test/app-test-definitions.js
@@ -484,6 +484,15 @@ const tests = [
       result.data.status.should.be.equal(200);
       JSON.parse(result.data.data).gzipped.should.be.equal(true);
     }
+  },{
+    description: 'should send empty string correctly',
+    expected: 'resolved: {"status": 200, "data": "{\\"json\\":\\"test\\": \\"testString\\"}\" ...',
+    before: helpers.setUtf8StringSerializer,
+    func: function(resolve, reject) { cordova.plugin.http.post('http://httpbin.org/anything', '', {}, resolve, reject); },
+    validationFunc: function(driver, result) {
+      result.type.should.be.equal('resolved');
+      JSON.parse(result.data.data).data.should.be.equal('');
+    }
   }
 ];
 
diff --git a/www/helpers.js b/www/helpers.js
index 87a564d..929563b 100644
--- a/www/helpers.js
+++ b/www/helpers.js
@@ -213,8 +213,6 @@ function getAllowedDataTypes(dataSerializer) {
 }
 
 function getProcessedData(data, dataSerializer) {
-  data = data || {};
-
   var currentDataType = getTypeOf(data);
   var allowedDataTypes = getAllowedDataTypes(dataSerializer);
 
@@ -248,7 +246,7 @@ function handleMissingOptions(options, globals) {
     timeout: checkTimeoutValue(options.timeout || globals.timeout),
     headers: checkHeadersObject(options.headers || {}),
     params: checkParamsObject(options.params || {}),
-    data: options.data || null,
+    data: getTypeOf(options.data) === 'Undefined' ? null : options.data,
     filePath: options.filePath || '',
     name: options.name || ''
   };