How secure is my personal data?

Cambridge Analytica scandal is a wake-up call that may leave us sleepless over lack of privacy.

IN today’s world, where data is king, I am not sure how safe my online personal data is.

Like millions of others, I have been bombarded by online advertisements, polls, surveys and what have you.

I suspect my email address and my mobile data have been “harvested” for commercial use. Which is scary.

But we live in a realm where private data is like a gold mine of the old days. As we spend more and more time online, the risk of our personal data being compromised is increasing.

Nothing is safe or sacrosanct. I used to believe we have the right to privacy, which is a fundamental right that should be safeguarded at all cost.

After all, Malaysia has the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA). We ought to be able to stop worrying and sleep tight.

The PDPA is “to regulate the processing of personal data in commercial transactions and to provide for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto”.

In common language, it is supposed to protect our personal data from being misused.

Personal data is simply defined as any information collected or processed in connection to a commercial transaction which is capable of identifying a person.

You surrender your personal data all the time – when registering a new phone, opening a bank account, getting admitted to the hospital ... you name it.

The PDPA prohibits data users from collecting, processing and disseminating personal data for any reason at all, especially for commercial use or for use by a third party, without the consent of the person involved.

There is another critical element in the Act: when personal data is being processed, the data users must ensure adequate measures to prevent the theft, misuse, unauthorised access, accident disclosure, alteration or destruction of that data.

But that is wishful thinking. Enacting a law is one thing, implementing and monitoring it is another.

The question is not how much of our personal data is being “mined” or “harvested”, but more like how prevalent is the problem?

The Cambridge Analytica fiasco is a case in point. We want to believe that tech giants like Facebook will ensure our data is safe and protected.

And yet it was reported that the personal data of some 50 million Americans had been harvested and improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm.

In a rare display of humility, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the “mistakes”. He acknowledged the need to change the ways his company shares data with thirdparty applications. He went on to say, “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t, then we don’t deserve to serve you.”

As much as it is a wakeup call for Facebook, it should be for us as well. Facebook is not alone. There are probably other tech giants that are opening their users’ data to marketing partners and other business applications, all done without our knowledge or consent.

We are helpless in a way. No government can control social media. The tech giants have always resisted monitoring anyway. They insist on selfregulation.

But the Cambridge Analytica saga proves that Facebook’s practice of sharing data with thirdparty developers and users for commercial use can be abused, with or without Facebook’s knowledge or consent.

More so, if the information in Cambridge Analytica’s possession has helped sway an election outcome. Democracy is at stake here.

To make matters worse, during the UK Channel 4 News investigations, the consulting firm boasted of dirty tricks to swing elections using personal data available to them.

Executives who spoke to undercover reporters talked about using honey traps and fake news campaigns, entrapping candidates with bribery stings, and even hiring prostitutes.

Recently, Singapore’s Parliamentary Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods held a hearing on how Google, Facebook and Twitter are combating fake news.

But it was the exchanges between committee member K. Shanmugam, who is the nation’s Home Affairs and Law Minister, with Simon Milner of Facebook that created a lot of buzz.

When Shanmugam raised the issue of Cambridge Analytica, Milner said he saw no relevance to the reason for the sitting of the select committee.

Shanmugam then reminded him, “Facebook can be trusted to answer questions when asked. Facebook can be trusted to be a reliable partner, that the government can depend on Facebook to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Well said, sir!

The question is not how much of our personal data is being ‘mined’ or ‘harvested’, but more like how prevalent is the problem?