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Data protection law necessary but not sufficient
First and foremost, the public should be more aware of their rights in protecting personal data.
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Experts and observers say that the long-awaited data protection bill is needed to create a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure the safety of private data, but greater societal awareness is also required for it to be effective. (Shutterstock.com/Boiko Y)
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Experts and observers say that the long-awaited data protection bill is needed to create a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure the safety of private data, but greater societal awareness is also required for it to be effective.
The idea for the bill was proposed by the government of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono back in 2006 and the draft has been in the works at the Communications and Information Ministry since 2014.
The bill is intended to create consolidated legislation for data protection, which is currently spread out over 30 different laws, including the 2013 Citizenship Administration Law and the 2016 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
“This comprehensive data protection regulation is an important step toward addressing the rampant misuse of personal data,” Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) Wahyudi Djafar said at a recent discussion on the bill.
He cited several recent incidents that demonstrated the need for such a law, such as the revelation that bank customers' personal data had been sold to credit card salespeople, the misuse of users’ contact lists by online peer-to-peer lending applications, as well as numerous instances of doxxing.
