Amidst the debate on the security and confidentiality of SIM card registration process, government came to assure that personal data will be protected from abuses by anyone.
“People should not fear over data security. This SIM card registration is done to assure security among users,” said commissioner of Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Agency, Dr. Taufik Hasan, on Thursday (2/11) in Convention Hall at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM.
Polemics have arised since the socialisation of the obligatory registration that needs to input family card number and demography registration number. There are concerns that such data will be misused by operators or others that can sell these data to other parties.
Taufik mentioned the cellular phone operators ought to comply with prevailing regulations and government can take firm sanction against operators abusing the regulation.
“Operators have to keep data confidentiality of their clients. If they are proved guilty of selling data etc, sanctions will be imposed that may include permit revocation,” he said.
He assured this registration would protect consumers from criminal act such as forgery through Short Text Message or phone challs because the government will be able to track down the identity of person who uses that phone number.
“This acts as a deterrent so people cannot try to cheat people or other crimes, because we can track them down,” he added.
Director of Association of Indonesian Telecommunication Providers (ATSI), Sutrisman, said the SIM card registration was an attempt by government to achieve national single identity data and will protect the security and convenience of users.
“Customers data will present an accurate and true data to the Director General of Demography and Registry Office,” said Sutrisman.
These topics were discussed during a public discussion titled Re-registration of SIM Card, held by Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM in cooperation with Ministry of Communication and Information to give answers to current debate and concerns over this regulation.