he Communications and Information Ministry will urge the House of Representatives to pass the personal data protection bill as the latter has listed it in its 2018 national priority legislation program (Prolegnas), the ministry’s highest ranking official said.
“The House has confirmed that the bill, which was initiated by the ministry, is prioritized for deliberation and has been included in next year’s Prolegnas,” said the ministry’s director general for post and informatics technology, Ahmad Ramli, on Tuesday.
The bill has been in the 2015-2019 Prolegnas since 2016, but there has been no progress in the deliberation of the draft law.
Concerns about personal data security has emerged recently after the government required every prepaid mobile phone subscriber to register their number using their family card (KK) and resident identity number (NIK). Resident IDs hold several sensitive personal data including fingerprints and mothers’ maiden names.
Activists, who criticized the requirement, said Indonesia does not have laws regulating the protection of personal data in the electronic system and the only policy regarding the matter had been a 2016 ministerial regulation.
The government dismissed these concerns and said there were regulations guaranteeing the security of the civil registry data.
“Six articles in the 2013 Civil Registry Law have ensured security, with the maximum punishment for any parties convicted of abusing the data being 10 years imprisonment, a Rp 1 billion [US$73,893] fine and termination of cooperation agreement,” the Home Affairs Ministry’s director general of population and civil registration, Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, said. (ebf)
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