Sunday, January 12, 2014

MALAYSIA>>PDPA abused by banks, claims NUBE


Nube claims commercial banks are forcing employees for consent to obtain their personal data without proper security.
KUALA LUMPUR: Commercial banks are abusing the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA), claimed National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE).
“The government made the law with good intention and requires the bank to obtain individual consent.
“However banks now are forcing its employees to obtain their personal details along with the personal data of their immediate family members,” said Nube general secretary J Solomon in an interview recently.

The PDPA has been in place since Nov 15, 2013 and is meant to prevent the misuse of personal data for commercial purposes. It covers data users in 11 sectors.
The 11 are communication, banking and financial institutions, insurance, health, tourism and hospitality, transport, education, direct selling, services, real estate and utilities sectors.
Solomon said that employees who don’t give their consent are threatened with loss of benefits, salary, increment and bonus.
He also revealed that the bank employees are not given proper training relating to the PDPA.
“Hong Leong Bank merely tells their employees to sign their consent,” Solomon cited an example.
“We are worried that the personal information falls into the hands of third party. Signing the consent gives the bank license to flout personal details,” he said.
According to information derived by Nube, certain banks have even outsourced their human resources department’s services to third parties within and outside the bank.
Citing an example of the Standard Chartered Bank, Solomon said:”The salaries are paid to Malaysian employees but it is computed by people in India.”
Many companies also have outsourced data processing to external companies located abroad.
To resolve this problem, Solomon said Nube had called upon Malaysian Commercial Banking Association (MCBA) to conduct checks in all banks.
“Banks must ensure that personal data are secured safely, not passed and floated,” he said.
On that note, he also questioned why the PDPA exempts banks from conducting credit checks without consent and stressed that banks must obtain consent.

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