JAKARTA - Recent consumer data leaks reflect Indonesia's urgent need to discuss the Personal Data Protection Bill, says the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM).
"From these data leak incidents, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) sees the need to accelerate the discussion on the Personal Data Protection Bill," ELSAM Deputy Research Director Wahyudi Djafar said in an official statement as quoted from CNN Indonesia, Tuesday (23/6).
As examples, Mr Djafar cited data leaks on several e-commerce platforms such as the leakings of 12,957,573 accounts on Bukalapak, 12,115,583 on Tokopedia, and 1,2 million on Bhinneka.com, with the data then put up for sale by hackers. The lack of a data protection law, he added, results in several issues in the handling of data leaks.
"Including obscurity in the notification process, handling, investigation, distribution of responsibility, complain mechanism, and resolution," Mr Djafar said.
Thus, ELSAM urges the acceleration of the Personal Data Protection Bill to ensure that Indonesia has a strong data protection instrument to protect its citizens' privacy, especially in relation to sensitive data such as the COVID-19 patient data.
"Sensitive data leaks are more worrying, because these could identify an individual for the rest of their life and serve as a source of stigmatisation, discrimination, and exclusivism," Mr Djafar concluded. (MS)