Privacy of personal data (SMS)

In The Star, the Malaysian Home Minister raised concerns about the protection of personal data, including (especially?) SMS.

[ Malaysia should urgently put in place laws to protect information and personal data, says Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. “At present, your SMS (short messaging system), which is supposed to be private, is exposed.” ]

Again, our government is concerned and worried about us and protecting us from all the bad people that may use or abuse ill-gotten information, such as SMS conversations between you and someone else.

Naturally, most of these messages are innocent or hardly understandable by people outside the circle. But sometimes, your privacy deserves to be protected because even the poorest mobile phone owner may at one time or another, hold a private and confidential conversation with his/her spouse/mistress/master, doctor/lawyer/engineer or maid/driver/gardener.

And if this messaging conversation is found and published, it may show that there may be been plans to perform immoral, unethical, illegal or fattening activities, and possibly make it very embarassing for the parties involved. To ensure these private plans or activities never see the light, we should make and put in place the laws that protect personal data.

Once the laws are in place, all data is private. And no one is none the wiser. Great idea, this law. I dont know why we dont have it already. Do other countries have it? Maybe we can be the role model for ASEAN, EU, NATO, NAFTA, etc, etc?

If only the rakyat had paid more attention to how some have abused these data by publishing private conversations, or if the government have learnt that someone may publish embarrassing conversations that may implicate a member of theirs, the government may have introduced the law sooner.

And when the videos of young people in compromising positions were distributed, it was not important enough to (or perhaps it was entertaining enough to not) consider if such an act (of the legal type) was necessary to prevent further distribution of such acts (of the compromising kind). Perhap such acts (of the comprimising kind) by young mobile-phone-with-camera users should have been protected by some acts (of the legal type).

We are so glad that our minister had thought of it. That we have such a giganormous hole in the protection of data seemed to have occurred spontaneously in a stroke, of genius to the minister just when some company was launching some product yesterday. I guess the ministers didnt have time to think of such things during their normal busy days. The company deserves to be praised for raising the thought in our minister despite his busy schedule.

Such great thinking, to protect justly, fairly and equally all - both the innocent and the guilty.
I should have thought of that!

P.S. It is illegal for you or me, for young or old, for rich or poor, to live in the park or under a bridge. Fair is fair.