SIBU: The storing of much personal information in one place which leaves the door open to misuse, may be contributing to public hesitancy towards signing up for the Central Database Hub (PADU), said economist Datuk Dr. Madeline Berma.
“In my opinion, the majority of Malaysians are concerned with the security of their personal data. With the formation of Padu, ensuring the security of every single piece of data will be a big challenge,” she said when contacted by New Sarawak Tribune today (Mar 4).
The Senior Fellow of Institut Masa Depan Malaysia (MASA) also said that data privacy, legality of data-sharing processes, and security measures implemented to prevent hacking and unauthorised access to personal information might also cause people concern.
“It has raised concern that the public will not have any control over what the data will be used for, as the regulation does not provide for public disclosure of which entities will use the data or for what purpose,” she added.
Dr Madeline emphasised that data breaches might also contribute to the reluctance of signing up for Padu, as Malaysians are worried that attackers or scammers could exploit the data dependencies of their daily life.
Another key factor, Dr Madeline added, is that the public might deem Padu as violating the law and citizens’ rights.
“Malaysians argue that by compiling information on things like earnings, health status, religion, and education, it is a form of social control and could be used for political engineering,” she stressed.
Nevertheless, she added that Padu which was launched on Jan 2 has a lot of advantage as it will coordinate all inter- and intra-agency data.
“It is an important move towards consolidating databases in Malaysia given that databases are one of the building blocks of a modern economy,” she stressed.
She added that with the formation of Padu, the government will be able to store all critical data in an organised and easily accessible format.
“It will also integrate socio-economic information from every household in Malaysia as Padu plans to have data on 32 million Malaysians,” she added.
She said that the Padu database will contain “near real-time” socio-economic data from all households in Malaysia.
“It is a “near real-time” data processing meaning it involves processing data with minimal delay, typically within seconds, minutes, or a short time frame,” she said.
She emphasised the Padu mega database will minimise “error of omission, and error of inclusion” associated with previous databases kept by the multiple Ministries and departments.
“Error of omission is not including a household in the database although they fulfil the requirements for inclusion.
“On the other hand, error of inclusion, is including a household in the database though they may not fulfil the requirement.
“Padu database will help to minimise these errors and ensure there are no leakages in the government’s targeted subsidies,” she said.
