Data Sovereignty – A boon or a bane?

Data across borders – Data Sovereignty

I really did not want to write Data Sovereignty in the way I have written it now. I wanted to write it in a happy manner, but as recent circumstances appeared, the outlook began to dim. I apologize if my commentary is bleak.

Last week started very well. I was preparing for the iXsystems™ + Nextcloud webinar on Wednesday, August 25th 2021. After talking to the wonderful folks at Nextcloud (Thanks Markus, Uwe and Maxime!), the central theme of the webinar was on Data Sovereignty and Data Control. The notion of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) has already  permeated into EU (European Union) entities, organizations and individuals alike, and other sovereign states around the world are following suit. Prominent ones on my radar in the last 2 years were the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Vietnam Personal Data Protection Act 2020.

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Malaysia data privacy is still shambolic

2 years ago, I wrote an article on LinkedIn titled “Malaysia, when will you take data privacy seriously?“. What has changed? Very little. 

Last Friday I received an SMS and a WhatsApp message from an ex-bank employee who was terminated from a complaint I made (not about him) about the bank violating my data privacy. The bank and/or their agents have been calling my number for several years (more than 5), and I have made numerous (many, many) requests not to be called or have my name deleted from their calling database. This has fallen into deaf ears until I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Red means NO!

In May of this year, I decided to use Twitter to tweet my unpleasant experiences and my displeasure to the bank’s Twitter handle. They responded with canned replies and made promises that really did not amount to anything. Right after my 2nd last complaint to date, the following day I got another telemarketer from the bank calling me (again) trying to sell me their insurance package. By now, I already got their head of customer advocacy center’s contact and I called him to complain again. This complaint got this telemarketer from the bank fired. Friday, this ex-employee sent me a WhatsApp and an SMS message telling his side of the story, asked me to withdraw my complaint and have him reinstated.

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AI needs data we can trust

[ Note: This article was published on LinkedIn on Jan 21th 2020. Here is the link to the original article ]

In 2020, the intensity on the topic of Artificial Intelligence will further escalate.

One news which came out last week terrified me. The Sarawak courts want to apply Artificial Intelligence to mete judgment and punishment, perhaps on a small scale.

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Malaysia, when will you take data privacy seriously?

It is sad. I get about 5-10 silly calls a week and a bunch of nonsense messages in my WhatsApp text and SMS. They waste my time, and it has been going on for years. Even worse is that my private details are out there, exposed and likely be abused too.

Once I got a call from a municipal attorney in the state of Kelantan that I have unpaid summons of several thousand ringgit. They have phone number, my IC number and they threatened to send me a note to arrest me if I didn’t pay up. The thing is, I have never been to Kelantan and I challenged them to send the attorney letter to my home address. The guy on the phone hung up.

In this age where digital information is there at our finger tips, the private details of victims are out there, easily used for unsavoury gains. And we as Malaysians should not shrug our shoulders and not assume that everything is like that, as if it is a Malaysia way of life. That apathy, our state of indifference, should be wiped out from our attitude. We should question the government, the agencies of why is our privacy not protected?

We have the Personal Data Protection Act, ratified in 2010. I don’t know the details of the act, but in its most basic form, don’t you think our private details should at least be protected from the telemarketers calling us selling their personal loans, time share travel suites, private massage (with benefits?) and other silly stuff? How can an act, as a law, be so toothless? Why bother drafting the act, and going through multiple iterations, I would suppose, and making it a law, and yet remain so unworthy to be called a act? Continue reading