I was called to write on the issue of invasion of our privacy and its association with MyKad having read Belkisa Lim's ' Who has access to personal information in MyKad ? '

The creation of a national ID card system has been a controversial issue, especially in developed countries like United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Even in Asia, there are resistance from citizens in Taiwan and South Korea.

Gradually, the function of the smart cards will increase. In future, individuals who own such cards will tend to forget the original purpose of the ID card. The development of 'unintended purposes' will lead to an invasion of our privacy without us realising it.

Take the United States - its social security cards between 1946 and 1971 were only restricted to one purpose only, which was for social security purposes. However, bit by bit the original Social Security Act is abandoned as the social security cards are used for unrelated purposes. Now, almost all forms that American needs to fill will ask for the Social Security Number. Who knows, all these will allow the government to monitor the movement of citizens.

The proliferation of the applications of smart card will have extreme social impact on individuals, especially in terms of the creation of centralised data warehouse that tracks individual's activities. This lead to the emergence of new social controls and the greater use of personal information.

There will soon be an integration of data system internationally, between government agencies and private agencies.

Narayan Kanan, senior vice-president of Multimedia Development Corporation, states in Utusan Malaysia (Aug 17, 2002) that MDC is negotiating with the governments of the Philippines, Laos, Burma, and Bahrain for similar MyKad initiatives.

Privacy is recognised in international law as a basic human right. However, the lack of awareness of our own rights will lead to the death of privacy.