TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
‘Data more valuable than oil’: Jokowi asserts need to guard privacy
It seems that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, or at least one of his speech-writers, has watched Netflix's documentary The Great Hack, as the President has asserted the importance of personal data protection in his State of the Nation address.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Illustration of data protection (Shutterstock.com/Boiko Y)
S
treaming video platform Netflix launched in late July “The Great Hack”, a documentary on the dire state of privacy in the United States and Europe, where people spend much of their time online and volunteer countless nuggets of exploitable information.
The two-hour movie’s conclusion is terrifying: Big business and politics have been mass-mining users’ everyday data, ranging from Facebook “likes” to online subscriptions, for profit and power.
It ends by calling personal data “the world’s most valuable asset [...] surpassing oil.”
Fast-forward three weeks and it appears that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, or at least his speech-writers, have watched the documentary, as the President asserts the importance of personal data protection in his State of the Nation address before members of all branches of government -- the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
The annual speech came on the eve of Indonesia’s Independence Day, which falls on a Saturday this year.
