Shabery: Need for more transparency in personal data collection

There is a need for the world's application developers and providers to be more transparent in collecting personal information from users. Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said in adopting information communication technology (ICT), consumers should be mindful of the purpose of personal data collection and the need to protect them. "When they give personal information about themselves on the Internet, they must be aware what the data is going to be used for," he said in a session on mobile privacy and privacy across borders at the Ministerial Programme of the Mobile World Congress 2014, here from Feb 24 to 27. The annual congress was organised by the London-based GSM Association. Malaysia, for example, had taken steps to protect personal data via the Personal Data Protection Act which was passed in 2010 and came into force on Nov 15, 2013. Ahmad Shabery said further efforts shopuld be made to better understand the data economy. "We need to understand more about this new economy, the data economy. Data on its own does not mean much." He added when huge data sets were aggregated and analysed, those who owned this data and able to turn it into something valuable would hold the balance of power. Inevitably, it would be the 'over the top players' who would be the most powerful, and they would do everything they could to protect their competitive edge. "Consumers need to be made aware of this and while governments and industry players have a role to educate them, the issues often transgress national boundaries." In his intervention, Ahmad Shabery noted that in the late 90's, the world was embarking on the knowledge economy but recently, the digital economy had become the buzzword. "Before we can even reap the benefits from this, the people are already talking about the data economy," he said. Also participating in the Ministerial Programme was Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, who was a speaker in the Mobile World Congress' Asia Pacific Forum focusing on mobile development policies for the region. Meanwhile, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) took part in the Mobile World Congress 2014 exhibition. This is the second time that MDeC had showcased the offerings of MSC Malaysia mobile content companies to the international market. This initiative is part of MDeC's objectives to promote the local mobile content developed by home grown developers and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) from the mobile content sector to MSC Malaysia. Ahmad Shabery also visited the MDeC booth was introduced by MDec chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali to MDeC's new global partners from the Government of Catalonia, Telecommunications and Information Centre, Mobile Content Forum, Jordan Gaming Task Force, and Nokia Global. Five MSC Malaysia-status companies were brought to the congress, namely M-Mode Sdn Bhd, M-Touche Sdn Bhd, Macro Kiosk Bhd, Infovista Sdn Bhd and Tranglo Sdn Bhd, who were all involved in the mobile content and telecommunications integration business. More than 900 government representatives from over 150 countries took part in this year's Ministerial Programme. The participants for the Mobile World Congress 2014 hit 80,000 this year, a marked 10 per cent increase from last year.