Malaysia orders telecoms firms to hand over user data, raising privacy concerns
Malaysian government has ordered the country's telecommunications firms to hand over detailed records of phone calls and internet usage, according to industry sources, raising concerns about the state's use of data as it broadens its controls over online activity.
In April, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission sent a letter to telecoms companies instructing them to send detailed call and internet logs for the first three months of this year, apparently for the government's Mobile Phone Data project, two industry sources confirmed.
Non-compliance would be considered an offence under the Communications and Multimedia Act, which carries a penalty of a 20,000 ringgit (US$4,700) fine or six months' jail, the commission said in the letter seen by This Week in Asia.
'They are asking for call records, IP call records, location, latitude and longitude,' one source said. 'We have asked MCMC about transparency and accountability for the use of the data. We don't know if MCMC will make a public statement that such an exercise is under way.'
The MCMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister
Anwar Ibrahim 's administration imposed mandatory licensing for
social media platforms in January in a bid to stamp out scams, online gambling and child sex exploitation targeted at Malaysians.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Singapore's Temasek mulls major overhaul to boost returns
Singapore 's Temasek Holdings is mulling one of its biggest overhauls in years, potentially reorganising the firm into three investment vehicles in a bid to boost returns and efficiencies, according to people familiar with the matter. Advertisement Under the proposal still being discussed at senior levels, Singapore's state-owned investor could divide its business into three arms. One would focus on Temasek 's biggest domestic holdings, such as Singapore Airlines , and another would oversee largely foreign investments. A third unit would include all of Temasek's fund investments, said the people who asked not to be identified, discussing a private matter. The move, which remains fluid and subject to change, would fundamentally restructure the 51-year-old investment giant amid rising pressure to deliver higher returns and streamline its operations. While Temasek's net portfolio value hit a record high of S$434 billion (US$338 billion) as of March 31, its 10-year total shareholder return of 5 per cent – a compounded and annualised measure that includes dividends – just matched that of its larger but more conservative Singaporean peer GIC Pte. It underperformed the MSCI World Index, which returned an annualised 10 per cent in the decade through March 2025. Temasek is currently run in a conventional manner, with different executives responsible for investing across various assets and geographies, such as real estate or China . If the reorganisation proceeds, it would enable key executives to better focus their attention on improving the firm's performance and efficiency, the people said. Advertisement Temasek didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Malaysian employers warn cutting number of foreign workers may backfire
Malaysia aims to reduce its dependence on cheap migrant workers by reducing their proportion of the overall workforce from next year, a move that the government believes will raise the wages of citizens and productivity, but employers warn could jack up their costs. Foreign workers from Bangladesh Indonesia , and Nepal have helped power Malaysia's industrialisation since the 1980s. But critics say their influx has also stirred resentment among Malaysians, fuelled a black market for illegal work and deterred investment in new technologies, with millions of cheap workers constantly vying for manual jobs. Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said the cabinet had agreed to slash the proportion of foreign workers from 15 to 10 per cent of the total workforce from 2026, in line with the commitment made in Malaysia's recently updated five-year economic plan. 'This committee will finalise the new foreign worker sector ceiling in accordance with the policy set by the ministry of economy, which is 10 per cent in the first or second quarter of next year,' Saifuddin said on Tuesday. The current ceiling of 15 per cent translates to nearly 2.5 million migrant workers, who are mostly employed in the manufacturing, construction, restaurant and agriculture sectors.
South China Morning Post
17 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
As the US and China compete, Asean could play arbiter
As Asean celebrates its 58th anniversary, it is inhabiting a liminal moment, one that straddles the unmarked border between two international eras. One era is lingering but on its way out as another is hobbling its way in. The Cold War is long gone and the subsequent period of American unipolar primacy is drawing to a close, albeit without a new global order to replace it. The great powers are in the throes of an inevitable transition. The United States and China each believe that history is on its side. Southeast Asian countries do not believe that the global highways of military and financial power have bypassed the US forever or that they should put all their eggs in China's basket. History is still in flux. The rules-based global order is like a highway under tensile stress, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, perhaps the most congested junction on the highway between the US and China. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations stands at the heart of that junction. The safety of the highway depends on its structural integrity. The safety of regions along the highway depends on great powers following the rules of the road. However, there is no longer one set of rules. The traffic laws of international affairs now have many different interpretations. Increasingly, the US and China insist on adherence to a rules-based order on their own respective terms and for their respective interests. Interpretations must be reconciled so international traffic can flow safely and smoothly. Asean can encourage both sides to adopt a common highway code for mutual security. Of course, Asean is no global policeman. But it's precisely because Asean poses no economic, political or military threat to either the US or China, or to anyone else, that it can act as an informal and impartial interlocutor between the two great powers. That should be Asean's diplomatic purpose: to be an arbiter in the Indo-Pacific region. Southeast Asia is still a price-taker in international relations. However, the escalating Sino-US rivalry has turned the world from a seller's market into a buyer's one. The more intense that rivalry gets, the more that great powers feel the need to 'sell' themselves to others.
