JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): The government insists that its mobile Covid-19 tracking application, PeduliLindungi, does not keep users’ personal data indefinitely and that measures have been taken to improve data protection and use, following a recent United States government report that raises concerns over the potential interference of privacy.
In its 2021 Indonesia report on human rights practices issued last week, the US Department of State flagged “NGO concerns about what information was gathered by the application and how this data was stored and used by the [Indonesian] government", in a small subsection dedicated to unlawful interference with privacy.
Speaking to a local news channel on Sunday (April 17), Health Ministry spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi acknowledged the security concerns surrounding the app but assured measures had been taken to mitigate potential problems.
She said that while civil society concerns over the app were “understandable”, its security was thoroughly being reviewed, seeing as the app was so central to the government’s pandemic recovery efforts.
“Given that this report [focuses on events] in 2021, much has since been improved in the use and protection of data, particularly encrypted data,” Nadia said.
The government app has gained notoriety among NGOs for requiring its users – essentially every individual in the country – to provide sensitive personal data points and have their movement in public areas recorded in the app, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The app’s privacy policy states that it retains user-submitted data including name, date of birth, identification numbers, mobile phone number, address, profile photo and passwords, among other information.
Meanwhile, data recorded during the app’s use includes and is not limited to approximate location data, IP address, Wi-Fi location and usage history, as well as data obtained from Bluetooth and camera-based access.
As of October of last year, more than 60 million people have downloaded the application.
Their concerns were further hardened by the frequency of personal data breaches, particularly after July of last year, when a database of 1.3 million users of the Indonesia Health Alert Card (eHAC) system was allegedly leaked in an online forum.
The eHAC system at the time was in the process of being integrated with the PeduliLindungi app, although the government has rejected claims of a leak.
Nadia insisted that the use of the app and “every layer of data transaction flows” were predicated on the prior consent of the user. She also noted that users could erase their data history in the app and not all collected user data was stored indefinitely in its data centres.
The official said the ministry had worked together with the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) and the Communications and Information Ministry to put layered security systems in place.
Still, Nadia said her office would coordinate with the Foreign Ministry for any further clarification in regard to the US government report. Previously, Coordinating Political, Legal and Human Rights Minister Mahfud MD told reporters that the app had proven effective in containing Covid-19 transmission during the Delta and Omicron waves.
“We made the PeduliLindungi programme to protect our people. We have in fact been better at overcoming Covid-19 than the US,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.
According to 2021-2022 ministry data, the app managed to prevent 3.7 million individuals who were not completely vaccinated from entering public areas. It has also prevented some 538,000 infected people from travelling and accessing enclosed public spaces.
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