LETTERS: Malaysia's announcement to develop a "national digital ID" to serve as a standardised digital credential for the people is a move in the right direction. It makes sense for people to have their own digital identities with the pandemic accelerating society's migration to cyberspace.
Whether this will result in a "secure and trusted" system depends on how it is implemented and data associated with it is used.
National digital ID, if executed well, holds the potential to reduce cost of services while increasing speed and efficiency, and reduce disparity through equitable sharing of opportunities.
Without a people-centric framework and ethical guiding principles, however, our cyber identities will be mere data to be monitored and capitalised by those in power, opening pathways for uninhibited capitalism and tyranny.
Thus, as stated by InsideBigData, the development of digital ID needs to be viewed through an ethical lens — instead of being an organisational one as prevalent in the current iteration society — with robust regulatory framework to ensure democracy prevails through ethical use of data, personal or otherwise.
The people need a way to control when, how and what part of their digital identity can be used, by whom and for what services. Never before has "data ethics" taken a centrestage than at the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digital transformation than now.In this regard, the Malaysia 5.0 vision — modelled after Japan's Society 5.0 and championed by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation chairman Datuk Dr Rais Hussin — provides the policy framework for a technology-enabled, rakyat-centric principle governing data ethics.
Malaysia 5.0, dictates technology use to ultimately serve the people. Bar Council Information Technology and Cyber Laws Committee deputy chairman Foong Cheng Leong has reportedly pointed out the potential weaknesses in the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2010:
FIRST, the federal and state governments are not subject to it; and,
SECOND, actions on any breach of PDPA is subject to the discretion of the commissioner. Thus, the people's limited influence and ability to respond to PDPA breaches by the government contributes to poor check-and-balance of the regulatory system.
Even with national regulations in place, cyberspace is a borderless world. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has to address the issue of accountability among foreign governments and corporations.
As for the issue of a decentralised identity, MCMC may consider the concept of "self-sovereign identity" enabled through blockchain as a potential solution.Malaysia 5.0 promotes personal liberty through the decentralisation of power and authority.
Author Phillip Windley opined that cryptography technology, such as blockchain, which is a form of digital distributed ledger, holds the potential to bridge the traditional digital identity dilemma as self-sovereign identities can be searched for and verified without involving a central directory.
A national digital ID is the first critical step in society's migration to the digital realm and it must be implemented through a people-centric policy framework.
Ameen Kamal
EMIR Research
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times