.jpg)
A recent report by The Edge Malaysia referencing South China Morning Post detailed that the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had requested telephone line service providers give detailed call and internet logs for the first three months of the year.
This decision to collect data was not announced prior to the collection and was only revealed due to sources informing the South China Morning Post of the directive by the commission.
After it was revealed to the public, Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil clarified that the data collected during the directive was to only be used for the statistics department and will not include any personal information of citizens that can be identifiable according to an article by Free Malaysia Today.
Despite this reassurance and clarification provided by the minister, the nature of an unannounced data collection occurring in the background is concerning for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, the amount of access the commission has access to sensitive anonymous information is concerning. According to the Malaysian Bar, despite the fact that the information was privatized, there is potential that such information can still carry rich metadata that can be identifiable is a concern.
Additionally, the lack of an opt out option adds to the feeling of a breach of privacy occurring. Failing to provide an option for citizens to exclude their data from the collection raises concern of lack of consent for citizens data usage and can lead to greater distrust between the commission and society at large according to the Malaysian Bar.
The failure of the MCMC to inform and ask for consent for the usage of private information of citizens poses many questions and doubts of the real intentions of the usage of the data collected. The commission should detail specifically what information was collected, how it's protected and to be honest about the collection of data. The people deserve to know when and how their information is being used.
Chan Kenn Jin (facestabber123@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
