A HEALTH coalition has urged the Government to rebuild public trust in MySejahtera through regular and transparent updates on privacy and data usage policies for the app.
This must include publishing legal documents explaining the data governance such as which servers, who has access to the data and how the data is processed, said the Malaysian Health Coalition (MHC).
“We underscore the importance of a centralised national contact tracing application in managing COVID-19 and urge the Government to safeguard the ownership of MySejahtera,” the coalition said in a statement.
“We highlight key issues that may arise if we do not have a trustworthy owner for MySejahtera including breach in personal data privacy, misuse of public data and decline in public trust.”
This will subsequently erode public trust in the governance and accountability, both keys to the successful transition into an endemic phase for COVID-19, it added.
“We urge the government to rebuild public trust in MySejahtera, through regular and transparent updates on privacy and data usage policies for the app,” it commented.
“This must include publishing legal documents that explain the data governance (such as which servers, who has access to the data, and how is the data processed).
“The rakyat must know the legal structure of all private companies involved, as part of routine good governance.”
The MHC went on to stress that technical transfers of ownership should not be made through direct negotiations without the rakyat’s knowledge.
“MySejahtera has been integral part of COVID-19 management in Malaysia. We call for continuous effort from the Government to improve the balance between privacy and public health transparency,” it pointed out.
“The Government and the Health Ministry (MOH) must institute measures including possible legal recourse to increase public trust in MySejahtera.
“Protecting the rakyat’s health and data privacy must go hand in hand and cannot be compromised at any cost. Public health needs trust to be successful.”
On March 27 Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin refuted claims that the Government has sold the MySejahtera application to a private entity.
This is after Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had questioned the Cabinet’s decision to appoint MySJ Sdn Bhd by direct negotiation to take over MySejahtera after the Government had agreed to relinquish control over the app on Nov 26, 2021.
Khairy had, however, said in a statement that the Government had, on Nov 26 last year decided that the MySejahtera app will be the Government’s property and appointed MOH as the main owner of the application for the country’s public health management. – April 1, 2022
