PRESS RELEASE Digital Expert Talks #4 with Facebook Indonesia

PDP Bill and Indonesia’s Digital Economy

Yogyakarta, October 21, 2021 – Discussion on the Personal Data Protection Bill (RUU PDP) is peak. Indonesia needs to immediately have personal data regulation to protect the public from the risk of transactions based on the prediction of Indonesia’s valuation as the country with the largest digital economy level in Southeast Asia. Responding to this phenomenon, CfDS collaborated with Facebook Indonesia to hold Digital Expert Talks #4 themed the PDP Bill and the Indonesian Digital Economy, with speakers Muhammad Farhan (Member of Commission I DPR RI), Tony (Deputy Director of Basel & International Banking OJK), Noudhy Valdryno ( Ryno) (Manager of Public Policy Facebook Indonesia & Timor Leste), Thomas Aquinas D. (Researcher Center for Indonesian Policy Studies), and broadcast live through Facebook (http://ugm.id/liveDET4FB) and Youtube (http://ugm.id/liveDET4).

Ratification of the PDP Bill Dynamics 

According to Farhan, the development of the ratification of the PDP Bill has experienced many differences of opinion. Starting from the debate over the perception of personal data, approaches to protecting personal data, data risks, & the responsible authorities. Even Farhan stated that entering its seventh year, there were still debates regarding the authority for personal data protection, which now narrowed down to be managed by Kominfo and would have a PDP supervisory board in the DPR. This decision also involves a multi-stakeholder approach. Concerning the dynamics of the ratification and authority of the PDP Bill, Farhan argued that “the responsibility of stakeholders from various industries is mandatory, especially the authorities and managers of personal data. Vulnerability of personal data needs to be protected in the principle of implementing user data protection or consumer interests”.

PDP Indonesia in Protecting the Interests of Consumers

Tony saw the highest vulnerability of data was data in the financial sector. Therefore, OJK protected the interests of consumers with various regulations, one of which related to Bank Data Confidentiality. Tony said that one of the pillars of digital economy era transformation was data. Therefore, industries in the economic sector needed to pay attention to data protection, data transfer, and data governance as it was already well regulated in the draft PDP Bill. Even though OJK regulations have been handled regarding data and its use, Tony stated that consumer awareness of their data was still shallow. Consumers often shared or gave consent without reading the terms and risks. Tony said, “They approved without looking at the closure agreement. Before using digital applications, you must study the agreement first because it is binding.”

PDP Bill on the Digital Economy Platform

As a platform, Facebook seeks to encourage digital economy players in Indonesia. According to Ryno, regarding the PDP Bill, their current role was:

• Campaign for the importance of protecting privacy in the community.
• Educating the public about the importance of privacy in the online realm.
• Providing input regarding PDP best practices from other countries.

Ryno also explained that with current digital data & the digital economy, PDP Indonesia needed to have compliance and protection standards that the international community would recognize. Ryno emphasized that “The PDP bill is necessary to strike a balance in the sense of supporting space for innovation and protection for the community. The need for the PDP Bill that regulates and is obeyed but does not curb their operations.”

Implementation of the PDP Bill on the Digital Economy Sector

In the last session, Thomas explained the impact of the PDP Bill would significantly affect digital economy actors. According to him, data had economic value, thus always held a financial incentive to collect and process data. He also explained that business actors and consumers need to know the provisions of the process and data collection. With clear rules, business actors would be comfortable operating, especially in sectors requiring personal data collection and processing. In addition, consumers will clearly understand the type of data being protected. This would impact the sense of security in transactions that encourage consumers to use digital services. Thomas said that the existence of the PDP Bill was able to accommodate the interests of many parties and protect the interests of consumers so that their data was not misused. He suggested an option to opt-in, like the website asking the user for cookie approval, in the PDP Bill. The opt-in mechanism would be set by default for digital platforms not to collect data irrelevant to their business. Thomas closed his discussion with, “To protect people who are not aware of personal data, then consider the Indonesian PDP Bill an opt-in mechanism.”

Author: Dea Arum Komala

Editor: Firya Qurratu’ain A. & Ruth T. Simanjuntak