Wednesday, February 07, 2018

What kind of privacy do we really need?

I wish to raise the issue of privacy. What kind of privacy do we really need and how can the right to privacy be protected?

Do we need our medical records to be private? Why?

If we are applying for life insurance, it is better to let the insurance company have access to our medical records. They need this information to access the risk and charge the correct premium.

If they do not have access to the record, they will ask the applicant to declare their medical history. If there is non-disclosure by the applicant, the insurance policy can be voided. Surely this is a bigger financial risk to the applicant?

What about allowing doctors who are treating the patient to have access to the medical record? Surely this is helpful?

There is a risk that other unauthorised person have access to the record to use the information for illegal purpose. This can be declared to be a criminal activity.

Do we need our NRIC to be private? Why?

I am asked to provide my address and contact information many times for my daily activity. I prefer the information to be stored against my NRIC and for the authorised party to have access to this information from a central database.

There is the risk that unauthorised people may get their information for marketing purpose. The unauthorised access can be declared to be a criminal activity.

In practice, my contact information is already widely available. I get marketing messages by email or SMS. I regularly get marketing calls on my mobile and fixed line telephones.

While this is distrubing or intrusive, I have learned how to deal with them. I ignore marketing contacts by SMS, emails and telephone calls.

I do not need the Privacy and Data Protection Act (PDPA) to protect me against the unwanted calls. It is not effective anyway.

In fact, the PDPA is giving me a lot of trouble. Each time that I call an organization, I have to listen to useless messages that are mandated by the PDPA. I must have heard these messages a few thousand times over the past years.

Why impose a burden on ordinary people, without protecting them from the real threats and nuisances?

I do not understand why my NRIC should be kept secret. I will be quite happy to provide my NRIC number to allow authorised parties to retrieve my contact infformation directly. I do not want the hassle of providing the information repeatedly.

Anyway, my contact information is stored in many websites and some of them have been hacked. If the hacker have access to my contact details, it does not bother me.

If the hacker steal my password, what can they do? They can create nuisance by changing the password for my email account. They can read my emails. So what?

Anyway, they are taking the risk of carrying out a criminal activity.

They are not able to transfer money from my bank account as it is protected by a 2FA.

It may be troublesome for me to get back my email account. It is all right. It does not happen often. My email provider is able to allow me to reset my password. If I am really concerned, I can set a 2FA in my email account.

I think that the paranoia about privacy is misplaced. It is added a lot of unnecessary burden to our daily lives.

What are your views?










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