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Data protection bill: House, activists warn of abuse of power

The government and the House of Representatives have begun deliberating the long-awaited personal data protection bill

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, March 2, 2020

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Data protection bill: House, activists warn of abuse of power

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span>The government and the House of Representatives have begun deliberating the long-awaited personal data protection bill. The proposed bill looks to create a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure the safety of private data, but critics warn of the potential for abuse of power.

The bill, drafted by the government, is in the spotlight for a failure to regulate equal sanctions for personal data misuse conducted by the government, private sector and the public.

The government has also failed to include clear provisions on the establishment of an independent data protection authority to monitor and analyze the use of personal data in the proposed bill, disappointing lawmakers in the House Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs, information and intelligence.

"In the bill submitted to the House, the government did not include provisions [regarding the data protection agency],” NasDem Party lawmaker Willy Aditya said on Tuesday. “It only regulates disputes between citizens and the private sector.”

Citing a case that occurred earlier this month, when senior journalist Ilham Bintang lost hundreds of millions of rupiah from his hacked bank accounts, Willy said that even government institutions were prone to personal data theft.

Ilham’s case started when someone who had access to the Financial Services Authority's (OJK) financial information allegedly sold his data to hackers who then later used it to hack into his phone and log into his email and two mobile bank accounts. Eight individuals — including a person working at a microcredit bank — have been named suspects in the case.

“There are many government institutions managing our data — the Home Ministry, the Communications and Information Ministry, the National Police and many others. So this bill should regulate how to anticipate potential abuses of power by those state institutions," Willy said, adding that an independent data protection agency should be an inseparable part of the bill.

Gerindra Party lawmaker Yan Permenas called for balanced and transparent supervision of all related stakeholders — whether they be in the private sector, the government or the data privacy authority itself — so that the government does not have sole control over personal data management.

"The government must not intervene in the management of personal data. It is very dangerous. This kind of independent data protection institution is important to ensure there will be no conflicts of interest, even when the government violates the law," Yan said.

The government had previously vowed to form an independent data privacy body it deemed would function similarly to the European Union's data protection authorities — which have investigative and corrective powers to supervise the application of data protection laws and handle complaints.

However, the bill does not regulate anything in regard to an independent data privacy body. While Article 58 of the bill stipulates that the implementation of personal data protection will be under the authority of the communications and information minister.

Communications and Information Ministry Director General for Information Applications Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said the bill opened the possibility for the establishment of such a data protection authority through his ministry.

He cited a provision that mandates his office to draft an implementing government regulation for more detailed governance of data protection. But he did not elaborate whether it would be an independent body or a unit under his ministry.

“To what degree an institution is independent should be seen from the governance of the institution itself. We will not allow abuses of power and therefore we need to address it later through the government regulation in question,” Semuel said on Tuesday.

Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) researcher Wahyudi Djafar said that the unequal responsibility between the government, the private sector and the public in the bill was evident. The government was subjected only to administrative sanctions, while violations by the private sector were punishable by administrative sanctions and fines and individuals found guilty of violating the law may face jail sentences.

"There is no equality before the law there. I'd say having an independent body is a must. If not, there could be an abuse of power," he said.

Wahyudi said Indonesia should learn from fellow Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore and the Philippines, which formed independent bodies after they enacted data protection laws.

“Or they can give a new task to the already existing Ombudsman or the Central Information Commission [KIP],” he said. “The United Kingdom, for example, has an information commission office that functions as both a data protection authority and an information commission.”

The Ombudsman monitors public services, while the KIP monitors how the government fulfils the public’s right to information. The KIP is also an adjudicator in dispute hearings between the public and government bodies in non-litigation rulings.

The idea for the bill was proposed by the government of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono back in 2006. Since then, the draft has been undergoing an assessment by the Communications and Information Ministry since 2014.

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