Nube: Bank staff forced to give up their personal info

KUALA LUMPUR: Commercial banks are abusing the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 to force their employees to give up not only their personal details but also the personal data of their family members, according to the National Union of Bank Employees (Nube).

“Although the Government made the law with good intentions and requires the bank to obtain individual consent, banks now are using the law to threaten their employees to give their personal data without proper security,” said Nube general secretary J. Solomon.

Solomon alleged that employees who did not give their consent for the banks to collect and process their personal data were threatened with loss of benefits, salary, increment and bonus.

He claimed that many banks were asking their employees to sign their consent without giving them information or proper training on the new Act first. “We are worried that the personal data will fall into the hands of third parties. Signing the consent gives the bank licence to do what it wants with our personal details,” he added.

According to Nube, certain banks had outsourced their human resources department’s services to third parties within and outside the bank, with some even outsourcing data processing to companies located abroad.

“We are worried they will do the same with clients’ personal data, which will cause a legal problem because the Act has no jurisdiction outside Malaysia,” he added.

To resolve this problem, Solomon said Nube had asked their members not to sign any documents and also called on the Malaysian Commercial Banking Association to look into the matter. The MCBA could not be contacted for comments.