Good response: (From left) Khaizer Wong Abdullah, 22, Noor Padiyah Paad, 42, Soh Sow Wai, 59, Helen Henry, 47, and Mohd Noor Md Tahir, 64, looking at the Padu pamphlet at PPR Desa Rejang Setapak.
PETALING JAYA: The newly launched Central Database Hub (Padu) is well on its way to hitting one million registrations by this weekend, judging by the response so far.
According to Statistics Department chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, as at noon yesterday, it had received 612,807 registrations, with Selangor being the state with the highest number of registrations.
He said this was a promising start as the database was launched only on Tuesday.
“This has surpassed our target of 200,000 (registrations) per day, but now we have more than 600,000 registrations in only three days.
“There were 359,746 males and 253,061 females registered, with Selangor recording 148,547 total registrations.
“This is followed by Johor (66,036), Perak (55,865), the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (44,359) and Sabah (41,482).
“Due to its small population, Perlis recorded the lowest number of registrations among the states,” said Mohd Uzir.
Meanwhile, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) director Zaid Malek said the protection of personal data could not be left to the discretion of individual government agencies or departments.
He was referring to the statement made by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli in response to LFL on Thursday, after the NGO had called for Padu to be suspended pending amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) amid fears of data breaches and lack of accountability.
“We refer to the statement by Rafizi that there is no need to subject data collected by the government to the PDPA and that there is a ‘difference between PDPA 2010 and public data’ and that ‘each government agency has its own regulations on data.’
“This response by Rafizi is ignorant and irresponsible and is completely oblivious of the role and necessity of the PDPA in governing personal data,” said Zaid in a statement yesterday.
“Firstly, protection of personal data cannot be left to ad hoc and superficial regulations of individual government agencies or departments as suggested by Rafizi. This is a reckless suggestion. Such regulations, even where they exist, do not provide the effective and comprehensive protection afforded by the PDPA itself.
“The PDPA protects data according to carefully laid out principles, including the disclosure principle, the security principle, the retention principle, and the data integrity principle.
“Rafizi must understand that government agencies’ regulations have no such safeguards, thus exposing the public’s personal data to potential abuse and misuse.
“In fact, the Economy Minister failed to even give one example of any such regulation. Is he speaking of the Official Secrets Act, which is totally unsuited for this purpose?” said Zaid, who also argued that throughout the world, government data has been subject to PDPA-type regulations.
“The fact is, Malaysia and Singapore are the only countries that have exempted government data from a PDPA legislative regime. This is not just an embarrassment to our country, but also affects trade and business with entities from countries that have stricter personal data protection regimes.
“Further, Rafizi’s claim that there’s a difference between PDPA and government data reflects a serious lack of understanding.
“The nature and value of personal data is the same, irrespective of whether it is used by private businesses or by the government, and must be equally protected whether in the hands of the government or the private sector,” he added.
