Fahmi pushes for data law amendments to enhance protection
PKR’s Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil has submitted a notice of motion to the Dewan Rakyat to table a private member’s bill to amend the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA).
The proposed amendment seeks to give more independence to the Personal Data Protection Commission and its commissioner by making them answerable to Parliament instead of the communications and multimedia minister, Fahmi (above) said.
The law in its current form stipulates that...
PKR’s Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil has submitted a notice of motion to the Dewan Rakyat to table a private member’s bill to amend the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA).
The proposed amendment seeks to give more independence to the Personal Data Protection Commission and its commissioner by making them answerable to Parliament instead of the communications and multimedia minister, Fahmi (above) said.
The law in its current form stipulates that it is the minister’s discretion to appoint or revoke the appointment of the commissioner.
It also states that the commissioner can appoint a deputy and an assistant commissioner upon the minister’s approval.
The minister can also issue instructions in relation to the functions and powers of the commissioner.
Fahmi wants the commission to act at its own discretion and the appointment of the commissioner should be done via a motion in Parliament.
He also said the commission should be accountable to Parliament while not receive instructions from the executive branch.
“We can give a recommendation, advice, and we can even censure the government agencies or commission,” he said in an interview with Malaysiakini and KiniTV.
“Ideally, this can be done by having a parliamentary select committee to be given oversight powers on personal data protection matters,” added Fahmi, who is also PKR communications director.
He said this will allow the parliamentary select committee to summon the commissioner or relevant officers if the need arises, such as when a data breach issue was brought to Parliament’s attention.
‘Law should apply to govts’
The lawmaker also proposes to have the PDPA cover the federal and state governments as it currently only regulates the processing of personal data in commercial transactions.
“Government agencies share data rigorously as they work with each other.
“But in order to ensure the security of data transactions, these agencies also need better oversight and regulation in terms of data management.
“This is to ensure greater accountability. The federal and state governments should not be excluded from this law,” added Fahmi.
On top of that, Fahmi wants the government to introduce mandatory data breach notification rules, where the commission would be notified about the incidents.
This is among the best practices adopted in other jurisdictions in relation to data protection, he said.
“The government should also designate an individual as the data protection officer (DPO) to ensure that data is kept according to standards,” he said.
Culprits operate with impunity
Currently, he said, culprits behind data breaches remain at large and the victims do not even know their personal data have been leaked.
This sends the message that perpetrators can continue with impunity, Fahmi said.
He added that the previous Pakatan Harapan federal administration was working on PDPA amendments but could not complete it due to the change of government in February 2020.
Fahmi estimated that 100 million individual personal records have been compromised over the past five years, based on known leaks.
Fahmi, citing several such incidents including the infamous “telco leak” in 2017 and the latest “Pikas leak”, said there was only one data theft case brought to court so far.
He was referring to Malindo Air being charged in 2020 for allegedly violating the PDPA.
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