Parliament: Personal Data Protection Bill passedKUALA LUMPUR: Parliament passed the Personal Data Protection Bill 2009 that seeks to protect personal data belonging to the public from being misused through commercial transactions.
Information, Communications, Culture and Arts Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, in his winding-up speech, said the bill placed high importance on the protection of sensitive personal data, such as a person's information on his health, physical attributes, mental status and his religious preferences from being misused.
"A personal data protection commissioner will be appointed and an advisory committee created to advise the commissioner on the enforcement of the Bill.
"Their jobs will be to monitor the activities of commercial transaction of information, such as the Credit Tip Off Service Sdn Bhd (CTOS) in putting such information into their database," he added.
Rais said a personal data user who is found to have abused the data faced a RM200,000 fine or jailed for two years or both.
The minister told reporters later that private database collection agencies would have to strictly comply with the Act.
"The Bill is a form of cyber-legislation and Malaysia is the first among Asean countries to introduce this law.
"It's modelled after the provisions that were outlined by some European countries in relation to the protection of national security, defence and basic human rights requirements," he added.
Rais said the new regulations on data protection would ensure that personal data would not be given out except with the consent of their owners.
Source: The Star
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