PETALING JAYA: The website of the Selangor government’s free insurance scheme was inaccessible tonight, after a minister said an investigation was being conducted into an alleged misuse of voter data to pre-register Selangor residents for the insurance scheme, known as Insan.
Several website checkers reported that the site https://programinsan.com was down.
Earlier today, communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil said the personal data protection department (JPDP) was conducting an investigation into complaints of misuse of personal data for the scheme.
He told Berita Harian the department had the authority to investigate issues surrounding personal data. “I cannot comment too much until JPDP completes their investigation,” said Fahmi.
There had been complaints on social media that people’s names had been automatically registered for the insurance scheme without their consent.
Separately, Green Party Malaysia secretary-general Abdul Razak Ismail called for Selangor residents to join a class action suit against the state government for alleged misuse of personal data.
Razak said he had been shocked to find his name and that of his wife on the list of Insan policyholders when he checked the website.
On Wednesday, menteri besar Amirudin Shari said the state government pre-registered Selangor residents for the Insan scheme with data it obtained from the Election Commission.
Razak said his website check showed that the policy for him and his wife had begun in November. Had he known of it, they could have made a claim for hospital treatment after a car accident in December, he said.
He said the data appeared to be similar to those on the voter roll, but containing only names and identity card numbers, “which is why none of the policyholders received their policies in the mail”.
When asked whether the EC’s voter data can be used for commercial purposes, Fahmi, who is the Lembah Pantai MP, told Berita Harian that to his knowledge, there are no restrictions to the use of such data.
“(But) you have to check with the EC on this. I could purchase the data when I was a regular citizen, and I bought it for political work because I was contesting in Lembah Pantai.
“However, following this personal data security issue, whether the EC will change (their policy) or consider further action … that’s up to them.”
Insan began operations in October last year and provides insurance coverage for each Selangor resident of up to RM10,000 in the event of total permanent disability or death caused by an accident. - FMT
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