KUALA LUMPUR – In light of the controversy surrounding the MySejahtera app, local NGO Solidaritas.my founder Muhammad Najib has rallied the voices of the people by starting a petition calling for an immediate abolishment of the app.
Speaking to The Vibes, he said the recent controversy surrounding MySejahtera and the related companies has raised questions and doubts in the mind of the public, especially regarding the level of protection afforded to data recorded in the app.
“It seems as if the government is not the sole proprietor of the data on MySejahtera.
“There also appears to be a third party involved that is making money from being part of dealings,” he alleged, referring to MySJ Sdn Bhd, an entity believed to own the app’s intellectual property rights.
“There is a huge question mark on who MySJ Sdn Bhd is and how it came into the picture.”
Seeing that Malaysia is transitioning into the endemic phase, he said, the government should no longer make it mandatory to check into premises using the app.
“There are questions of whether the government is attempting to use MySejahtera for reasons other than to control the spread of Covid-19. Are they trying to track citizens?”
Similarly, last week, the Malaysian Medical Association had called for an end to the use of the app for contact tracing purposes, saying that it may have now outlived its usefulness.
In response, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had stated that the government will first assess the situation from April 1, the day of the reopening of the country’s borders to international travel, before coming to a decision on scrapping the requirement.
However, Muhammad said the is against the use of the app in any shape or form, especially as there have been rumours of it being further developed as superapp requiring the upload of personal data.
“The integrity of MySejahtera has already been tainted. The government should develop a new app if they really want the people to use any of its functions.”
The petition, started on March 27, has been making the rounds on social media, and has gained upwards of 14,272 signatures.
According to Muhammad, he plans to hand over the petition to the Health Ministry.
Failing which, he hopes that Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Wong Kah Woh will be receptive to the petition.
Over the last week, MySejahtera has been embroiled in controversy following revelations in PAC’s report released in Parliament, with questions raised over the true ownership status of the platform and data security of more than 38 million users.
On April 31, Khairy had said that the government had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the developers of the MySejahtera contact tracing app on April 1, 2020 to secure ownership of all user data.
He assured the Senate that all information obtained by the government is protected, and that it only uses data collected for the sake of managing the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the app’s server is based in the AIMS Data Centre here and not overseas.
The Vibes had earlier released a special report detailing the corporate workings behind MySJ Sdn Bhd, along with several other companies entangled in the web behind the app. – The Vibes, April 5, 2022
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