Our President, Jokowi, just signed data protection regulation bill. The bill imposes sanction for violating personal data. Those who unlawfully disclose or use personal data that are not their possessions will be subject to a seven-year prison sentence or a maximum fine of Rp 70 billion (US$ 5 million). What do you think about that? Is it enough to make company, like Facebook, to stop misuse user data for their own interest?
I mean it's really interesting that Indonesia introducing this law on personal data. That's far ahead than America which hasn't had law about data at all.
However, it slightly scares me that this could be used against people for misused personal data the idea of prison sentence. That is very punitif and this could be use against people who did good or journalist, NGO's and I hope it's a good piece of legislation. And it's not being use for authoritarian move for example against political opponent.
The investigation on Cambridge Analytica also made possible by the whistleblowers: Christopher Wylie and Brittany Kaiser. Do you hope that there will be more people like them to speak up about what the tech companies been doing for years?
I hope so. I particularly hope for the people who work for the big tech companies who work for Facebook, Google, Amazon, and all of the other silicon valley companies. I hope that we are going to have more of them coming forward and being prepared to speak up because these companies are so powerful and they are so opaque and closed.
We depend upon people on the inside, people having a conscience, and being prepared to come and talk to journalists. If there is anybody out there who is troubled by some of the things they see, I encourage them to come forward. It is really difficult being a whistleblower, but it is an incredibly important function and role for society.
The Observer revealed Cambridge Analytica had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles around the world. If you can categorize Facebook users, who is the most fragile user that their data can be easily misused?
I’m not sure. I think research on this varies. I think there has been some research that say all the users are now vulnerable to seeing fake news and not realizing that it is fake. But then, you will sorry things about because young people online so much and may be the hadn’t have traditional media literacy, they sometimes are more vulnerable.
But I think we all are vulnerable because it’s very hard online to know where anything is coming from, and to know whether you are seeing good, truthful evidence-based materials or not. And we are vulnerable to being targeted in different ways, and with things which are based on our personal data that might be really individual to us. So I think we all are vulnerable. It’s a really good question and I think we might not even realize all the time. That’s the thing.
Aside from what you do as a journalist, you are also a writer. Do you have any books coming in the near future?
I really want to. I've been very focus on journalism and particularly what happen in Britain. And if i got time, i really want to sit down and get it done in a long form story. So i hope sometime this year I will manage that.
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