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Category: PDPA (Page 1 of 4)

We are Minerals being Mined

March 25, 2018 / / 0 Comments

It is often said, and its almost cliche – Personal Information is the new currency.

And now, with the news on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, we are faced with the sort of global privacy crisis that we always knew it would be coming. Furthermore, it wasn’t as if Cambridge Analytica was a key data broker/trusted partner/premier solutions arm of Facebook. It just developed software to get the data. That’s it. 50 million users.

It was as simple as getting an app to use your facebook login to enter the app and that’s it. We think we are just logging into the app, but we are actually allowing the app to login into our facebook and take everything. Everything.

But what did we actually expect? Think about it.

Did we expect to have such a service like facebook where we can get information, connect with long lost friends, advertise our solutions and products, express our opinions in a global platform, create online value, message and chat, have thousands of hours of free access to apps etc etc – FOR FREE?

Unless Zuckerberg has the title of a ‘Saint’ in front of him, then that would be a hard sell.

No, Facebook says. You guys agreed to it. The terms of services says it. The one that is too long for you to humanly read. The one that they update without letting you know, and allowing trickles of liberality of information usage to seep in.

Facebook even contends that developers who have these information from their app cannot “transfer any data that you receive from us (including anonymous, aggregate, or derived data) to any ad network, data broker or other advertising or monetization-related service.”. That’s pretty kind of them. But in the first place, did Facebook inform users that their apps would be literally stealing the entire bank of information from the users?

It’s the sort of finger pointing activity you would expect – a phrase and sentence here and there that says, “Hey, we told you we are getting your information and we told these guys not to share! What can we do if they do share??!” But is Facebook giving excessive details? So in PDPA terms, it’s not just about third party sharing of information, it is about excessive collections.

In any case, I don’t think we have a case of PDPA against Facebook here as they do not have any systems in Malaysia processing personal information. But the point is that we have wittingly or unwittingly sold our information to Facebook in order to get the services they provide. Same for Google. Same for Apple. Same for Instagram. Same for Pokemon-go.

A great site we always give in our presentation of PDPA or information privacy to clients is: https://tosdr.org/

Terms of Services Didn’t Read. It’s a great site that basically summarises all the terms of services to human readable content and rate them according to how cavalier they are with our information. All the big guns are there. Even if not rated, we can look through their terms and have a little more details on what we are ‘paying’ them.

Take a look at Google, Youtube, Twitter to start with.

Facebook’s TOS:

  • The copyright license that you grant to Facebook goes beyond the requirements for operating the service. For instance, it includes the right for Facebook to transfer the license or to license it others on their terms (“sublicense”). Also, the copyright license does not end when you stop using the service unless your content has been deleted by everyone else.
  • This service uses cookies to track you even if you are not interacting with them directly. Amazon for instance, use cookies to track your device and serve targeted advertisements on other websites (Amazon associates, websites using Amazon Checkout). They “obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses Amazon.com or advertisements and other content served by or on behalf of Amazon.com on other Web sites”.
  • Facebook automatically shares your information with Bing, Pandora, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Clicker, Scribd, and Docs, unless you manually opt-out.
  • Including: data analysis, testing, service improvement, control of the effectiveness of the personal ads, and location features and services.
  • You must use your legal name publicly on the service. Using a pseudonym or a pen name is not allowed. This can have negative consequences on the freedom of expression, especially for people who exercise certain professions, or who live in certain countries.
  • Facebook uses, pixels and local storage in order to gather information about you, your device, your browser cache, your use of Facebook. Facebook also uses cookies for adversing purposes.

For years I have advocated clients (and also my personal friends and family) to use Facebook with these in view. For family: Never post about your current location. Never put photos of your children up online. Never reveal too much about your views and opinions. For work: Never give any views on your current work, the time you finish work, the after drinks parties etc etc. Basically, never give any relevant information.

Will Facebook be able to still get information? For sure. Every “Like” you click. Every news you click. Even when you are not on Facebook, and you are browsing the web, there are Facebook plugins that can track what you are searching for. Even if you search on Google, whatever you are looking for will appear eventually on Facebook. Data brokers and advertisers trade our information like anything – and what you do on Google surfaces in other social media platforms.

But we know. Services aren’t free. Our parents says, “There is no free lunch” and this is certainly true. But how much do we know about this lunch we are paying? We might be getting Subway sandwiches, but paying the money for Burgers and Lobsters dining. That, I suppose, is what the world is now only finding out.

For more on our information security services and PDPA services, drop us an email at avantedge@pkfmalaysia.com. The only thing we are collecting from you is whatever you tell us on that email. That’s our term of services!

 

 

PDPA and the Tale of the Telemarketer

October 29, 2017 / / 0 Comments

We were working very late on Saturday to roll out a PCI manual for some of our merchant clients, so I only slept at around 4.30 am. I am usually up on Sunday around 9.30 am at the latest due to my kids utilising my body as a trampoline which I can probably ignore for about 15 minutes before being entirely awoken, but 5 hours of sleep is pretty good so I will take that regardless.

At around 9 am unfortunately, my phone rang and I saw a number I didn’t recognise. Thinking this could be an emergency, I picked up the call and on the other line, this unrecognised voice chirpily said, “Hi, I am calling from <name of telco> and I would like to do a marketing survey with you!”

“Do you know it’s a Sunday?”

“Yes, it is a Sunday, I know!”

“Don’t you realise that you shouldn’t be telemarketing me on a Sunday morning?”

“We believe that you would be too busy on a weekday, sir, that’s why I am calling you on a Sunday!”

“Well, I am too busy now on a Sunday. Goodbye.”

And I hung up.

Now, I was fuming, because I just felt it was completely distasteful and disrespectful for them to be calling me up on a Sunday morning because they think I would reject them on a weekday. They think they will get me on a better mood on a Sunday morning?!

For the record, I don’t usually do this, as in, be rude or just hang up even on telemarketers. I am always reminded, that telemarketers are people. The person on the other line has a family too, and she probably wish that she was with them on a Sunday morning, taking her kids out for breakfast or hanging out with her friends or something. I mean, I doubt she is jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of going into the office and dialing up people on Sunday so she could make her survey quota. I never experienced being a telemarketer, but in our first year, I did experience the emptiness of having zero clients and doing cold calling if anyone wanted my audit services. So, yes, I do commiserate with them. On normal calls I am usually civil to them. I usually politely tell them that they have already called me many times (Astro calls me like every week asking me to upgrade), and even thank them before hanging up, before I put their number in my ignore list. Some, I admit, when they do call, and I am in a the middle of something, I tell them that I am currently busy and then I put their number on my ignore list. It’s hard for me to ignore phone calls on any number because there could be a potential sales opportunity and not a telemarketer. But if it is a telemarketer, I don’t shut them down rudely. At least not in my memory.

But Sunday morning is a different thing. I did kind of feel bad, and was contemplating to call her back again to take that survey, but then Sunday life started (me being a trampoline) and I lost track of it.

But how does our Personal Data Protection Act fit into all of this?

Contrary to many people’s beliefs, PDPA actually allows telemarketers to call you. There is nothing in the act that says telemarketers cannot call you. The problem isn’t so much of telemarketers calling. Them calling you is already way downstream of the actual issue. The actual issue is your information being shared, leaked, sold, brokered by service companies to information brokers. Sometimes it’s our fault. We sign up for things and we don’t read the fine print. When we get a direct marketing call we get all up in a tizzy and blame the entire planet for conspiring to wake us up on a Sunday morning. But hey, we agreed to it. Yes, in that terms of services we did not read. In that privacy statement we implicitly agreed to when we gave our information to get a chance to win that free trip to Tokyo.

Privacy statements from banks, telcos, service providers all have to include the section of ‘disclosure’. Google your favourite bank or telco and put in ‘privacy statement’ and click to get their privacy statement. In most cases you will find them defining who they intend to share your personal information with, and in most cases, some broad sweeping statement such as :

Our agents and service providers with whom we have contractual agreements for some of our functions, services and activities; and/or

 

Financial service providers in relation to the products and services that you have with us (e.g. mortgage brokers, insurance companies); and/or

 

Strategic partners with whom we have a relationship with for specific products and services if consented to, by you; and/or

Now, let’s break that down. The first one is very broad. “Agents” and “Service Providers” where they have contractual agreements  – this basically means the entire ecosystem of companies providing services to this bank! The second at least defines it, but generally these are a subset of the first. Finally the ‘strategic partners’ part isn’t so much of an issue but the ‘if consented to, by you’ sounds very good and positive, only for you to realise that the implied consent is usually obtained by you agreeing to the privacy statement in the first place! You see, there is no need for explicit consent if this is not considered ‘sensitive data’, so don’t expect your signature to mean consent. By you taking up their service and agreeing to pass your data – that’s a consent enough for them to share your information. Boom.

So, technically the moment we sign up for a service, we agree that we would allow telemarketers to call us – whether in the middle of the night or on a Sunday morning is irregardless – the fact is that we gave that permission, mostly without knowing it and all just because of that carrot they usually hang in front of us. Dang, I lost that Tokyo competition! Hey, here’s another one – “provide phone number to win a Mazda 3”. OK, here’s my number! Yaay! Let me be lucky!

You get the drift.

Now, back to telemarketers calling us. They have the right. They have a bunch of phone numbers given to them by the bank, and God knows what other information so they can sell us specific services: and so they make the call.

PDPA regulates telemarketing through Section 43 of the Act: Right to prevent processing for purposes of direct marketing. 

So the proper channel to stop this: Technically you are supposed to provide in ‘writing’ to the data user (company calling you), requesting you not to be contacted anymore for telemarketing. This can be a courtesy respond during the call itself, whereby you state to them, please remove your number from their list and not call anymore (it’s not in writing, but you can try this first). If they persist in calling, write to them (their email is found in their company’s privacy notice of who to contact if you have a complaint), and if you still get called up, you can formally complain to PDPA commissioner at aduan@pdp.gov.my and follow that up with a call to 03-89115000 (please check their website to see if this has changed).

So, there you go. Malaysia was supposed to implement a Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry to block these telemarketer phone numbers back in 2014, but it has seemingly died down and implementation is still not done. We are monitoring to see if this is being looked into again, but for now, it looks like we need to fend on our own here.

Remember though – the person calling you may not wish to be calling you at all, and they might just be a phone call away from losing their jobs. While I am not advocating you to entertain them just for the sake of being nice, but on the flip side, there is no reason for some of the foul-mouthed tirade I have seen some people venting on these callers, as if they want to personally reach into their mobile phone and strangle the guy on the other line. Cool down. Ask to be removed, and block the number and move on, knowing you can rely on PDPA if your notice of removal is constantly ignored.

If anyone needs to know more on PDPA, drop us a note at avantedge@pkfmalaysia.com. We have been working with many companies to sort their PDPA concerns out and also implementing controls to address the 7 requirements.

 

Personal Data Protection Act for Dong Zong

January 22, 2017 / / 0 Comments

dongzong

To kickstart the New Year, we spent two full days with The United School Committees Associations of Malaysia for the Personal Data Protection Act training. Which is really a mouthful to say, so we will go by its more well known alias, Dong Zong.

Now, this is a rather unique engagement, for the simple fact that both our lead trainers in PDPA do not speak a lick of Mandarin. The first is proficient in Malay (as he is Malay), the second (which is me) is proficient in English – although he is technically a Chinese. While I am Chinese by birth, my proficiency in language is as follows: English, Malay, Cantonese, German, Minionese, Mandarin. That is to say, I can talk in German and Minionese far better than I can talk in Mandarin. For those who are wondering, Minionese is the official language used by the Minions, the yellow, annoying creatures that so love bananas and my sons so love watching.

Thankfully, we had another colleague who was proficient in Mandarin, but needed a bit of update on the subject, as he was from our technical deployment team for SIEM. So we had a bit of crash course for both. I had to do the introductions, demo and clarifications in broken mando-canto-eng-nese, and he had to crash course the updated PDPA training.

We can usually do the training quite comfortably, including the technical demonstrations (which consist of us actually searching for personal information on the internet during the training itself, demonstrating how easy it is if you know which tools and how/where to look). But this was made infinitely harder because of my lack of command in the language. To put it simply, it was like wrestling with a 300 pound catfish or a giant python. You know what to say in English, but the translation facility in your brain is broken and you just can’t get it out of your mouth and what ends up coming up is meaningless dribble, which my 2 year old son would probably appreciate, but not a roomful of teachers and educationists…who are championing the Mandarin language and the progressive advancement of the Chinese community as a whole. It would be great if I told them I was actually Middle Eastern or Eskimo, then they won’t expect so much from me – but I look like a total Chinese, so there’s no hiding the complete embarrassment of not being able to speak in Mandarin.

To Dong Zong’s credit, they did take it in stride, and our Mandarin-speaking colleague performed admirably (I think, since I did not understand him) and at the end of the two days, we were very well appreciated because somehow between the both of us, we got the job not just done, but done with great feedback and participation from the group. There were some really excellent Q and A time, which I had to answer in English/broken Cantonese and got translated properly. We even had a chance to go through Dong Zong’s implementation of PDPA and did a impromptu, live commentary on the areas to improve in privacy notice and other policies.

For a non-legal, practical way to implement and assess your company on PDPA, please drop us an email at avantedge@pkfmalaysia.com. We have done a lot of practical training on compliance to PDPA, and taken a lot of good info from the PDPA Commission itself. Our content is based on the one we developed with the deputy commissioner of PDPA during the time when we worked together to deliver our training to companies in Cyberjaya. Over the years we have enhanced it with demonstrations, as well as updated with the latest development of Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection Act.

Guarding Yourself From Internet Intrusions

August 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I generally store all my customers’ project data in folders and back them up on a weekly basis. May was crazy as it was the first time for everyone filing their GST with Customs Malaysia. To cut to the story, I was so busy that I didn’t do any backups for three weeks in a row. Guess what? I got attacked! An extremely bad case of internet intrusion that made me cried tears of anguish.
I was ‘googling’ for something that I was researching on and went into a website that looked ‘harmless’. My laptop was on Norton Antivirus Program. No alert or red flag went up but 10 minutes later, I couldn’t access any of Excel or Word docs. There was an additional notepad document in each of my folders. I knew I’ve been attacked right away.

I opened the notepad to read the message – I need to know what virus I’ve been infected with to decide what my next move should be.

So, it’s Cryptowall 3.0. It’s one of the newer versions of ransomware and so far, no available ‘key’ available to decrypt. There are many others out there that have been decrypted by helpful forum-ers but not Cryptowall 3.0. They want money before my files can be decrypted. There’s never been proven that if you pay them, they would give you the key to decrypt the files and it is my belief that we should never encourage these people to bribe and threaten in this manner.

Rather than crying over spilt milk, time for me to assess how to restore and clean my laptop. This is what I did.

1) Restore
Restore from my backups that were three weeks’ ago. Unfortunately, the work that I had done after my last back-ups was a lot. Not good. However, Microsoft does have feature that is very useful – ‘Restore Previous Version’
If you right-click on each folder, there is an option to select the restoration date of your folders. It is a life saver in many ways – you may not get your latest but it saves you tons of hours of trying to figure out what you done on your documents for the past three weeks – in my case. So, it was an ardous task of right-clicking on ALL my folders and restoring them to the so-called ‘latest’ version.

2) Anti-virus program re-assessment
Many times, it could be our own fault that we don’t update the latest virus update. In my case, it is auto-updated. So, go figure. I checked that I was still on auto-update mode for the program but the virus attacked anyway. We need to know that t here are no virus-proof programs. Hackers come up with new viruses on a daily basis. If you visit AlienVault’s OpenTreatExchange (OTX) forum; the viral list grows everyday. It is to our own benefit to be preventive rather than reactive when it comes to being on the alert and to ensure that we have a reasonable Internet Security Application in place of work.

3) Cleaning up my laptop
For those not in the know, there many forums available for poor ‘infected’ souls like us, who are willing to help clean up and make sure our laptops are running back in tip-top condition. It would be very foolish ( I repeat, foolish) to not do a proper clean-up after being infected as you may risk your files being encrypted again. Using Norton to clean-up is probably the bare minimum you should do; however, I wanted to be very sure. Speaking of forums, I have always gone to two forums which has helped me answer questions about all sorts of stuff about Internet Security & etc.
a) http://www.bleepingcomputer.com
b) http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=129712&hl=
In my case, I decided to go to whatthetech. If you are a registered user of any of these forums, they will go through each step to help you. You can view my thread on how the clean-up process went from the link I’ve provided. No obligation to pay but donations are most welcomed by the folks that dedicate their time on the forums. (This article is not paid or asked by whatthetech).

4) Some things to take note
• Avoid P2P file sharing programmes; they are a security risk which can make your  computer susceptible to malware. File sharing networks are thoroughly infested with malware – worms, backdoor Trojans, IRCBots, and rootkits propagate via P2P file sharing networks, gaming, and underground sites. Users visiting such pages
may see innocuous-looking banner ads containing code which can trigger pop-up ads and malicious Flash ads that install malware. The best way to reduce the risk of infection is to avoid these types of web sites and P2P programmes
• Registry cleaners and optimization tools that claim to speed up your computer should be avoided, and are potentially dangerous. By running a registry cleaner you risk rendering your machine unbootable.
• Personal Data Sharing: Wild Tangent Games – Did you know that if you own an ACER laptop/desktop, Wild Tangent Games are PRE-INSTALLED? Apparently, ACER has a partnership with them. What you need to know is:-
The privacy policy of Wild Tangent Games; by default, will indicate that you had agree to advertisements by WildTangent, third parties and brand studies whereby you had allowed WildTangent Games to collect certain personal information.
This was discovered by whatthetech consultant that was helping me. So, if you own an ACER laptop, beware and uninstall all Wild Tangent Games. [Check out my piece about Personal Data and PDPA Malaysia – http://www.pkfavantedge.com/pdpa/the-iot-internet-of-things-my-personal-experience/]

5) Back-up Frequently
Back-up, Back-up, Back-up. I cannot emphasize the importance of this exercise. Back-up at least once a week; especially if you have done a lot of work that week. You may choose to back-up your personal and work items separately in terms of frequency, but back-up all your precious memories and work.
My viral attack drama ends here. I certainly do not wish this drama on anyone.

Be SAFE!!!

For Internet Security Applications advisory or PDPA training, drop us an email at avantedge@pkfmalaysia.com or contact us at +603 6203 1888.

by Agnes Yew, PKFAE Project Manager

The IOT (Internet of Things) : My Personal Experience

August 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments
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Unless you have been living in a cave or on a secluded island without internet connection, you may have come across the term ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT. According to Gartner, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.”

Living in an era where we have easy access to information at the tip of our fingers is now taken for granted. Going out of your home without your smart phone is absolutely unthinkable – well, at least for me. I can be connected with my friends & family members anytime and anywhere – it can’t get better than that right? Well, let’s re-think this carefully.

Security
I am a huge fan of Strava application. This mobile application uses GPS and mobile data to track your activity (be it cycling or running) – it tracks your mileage, exercise effort level (wattage), time taken to complete the activity and then, further provides data on your ranking against other Strava users on the same activity/route. As I cycle and run competitively as a ‘hobby’, Strava is a great way for me to track my improvements and also pit myself against my friends to be the Queen Of Mountain of a certain mountain anywhere in the world. Awesome! – well, maybe….

The great thing with Strava is that it is connected to Facebook. In fact, if you use your Garmin to track your activity, you can set up your Garmin to connect seamlessly to Strava on every activity tracked on Garmin. Notice the word I’ve used here: SEAMLESSLY. Yes, it is that easy. Friends on Facebook are able to know where I was or where I am currently at based on my post through Strava.  Now, my friends can like my activity and comment as well. Let’s just say that a friend of my Facebook friend intends to track me and know my current whereabouts, s/he can definitely find all that information via Facebook. If s/he intends to break-in to my home (assuming s/he knows where I live), can do so as well – because I am not at home – I’m still cycling back to my house. Dangerous? Am I inviting trouble? You bet! The internet of things have enabled different types of devices to be connected seamlessly and we love that; however, have we ever stopped to think of the danger that we’re opening ourselves up to? It doesn’t take much to be information technology savvy to track a person’s whereabouts.

We love to tell our Facebook friends where we are at by posting “Agnes Yew checked in at Mid Valley” or “Agnes Yew checked in at Madam Kwan, Mid Valley City”. Have you ever stopped to think that we’re providing information to people on our whereabouts willingly and this could be used to our disadvantage?

Time to stop and think…

Data Breach
Ashley Madison was recently hacked and it was let out that the hackers had access to its customer database and have posted the information on a public website for all to see. Ashley Madison is a discreet website which allows their customers to hook up with other folks who are interested in dabbling in a little fun outside the marriage bed. If you were a registered customer (married or attached) of Ashley Madison, you’ll be jumping or maybe peeing in your pants as the list of customers are now in the hands of hackers and shared on a public website.

Personal data is very much valued by consumer marketing companies and anyone who has access to a database has the upper hand to sell that information. I’ve been bombarded with these annoying SMS(es) on properties going on sale and what not every day. Yes, every day. I have to add these numbers under SPAM. It’s annoying as I don’t know where and how they got my mobile number. It could be when I got on the internet and signed up for some newsletter and I did not read the fine print and,or, I did not un-check a box to unsubscribe.

The Personal Data Protection Act in Malaysia was gazetted in 2010 and has been in enforcement from April 2013 on-wards. PDPA is supposed to protect consumers whereby companies holding our personal data are obligated to set up policies and a structured framework to ensure that the data is stored safely and not be leaked out. In my opinion, Malaysia is still in its infancy in comparison to US or EU, in terms setting up a stringent DPA (Data Protection Act) framework. Companies are not investing in being PDPA compliant unless they are required to by the Ministry. At the moment, the Finance, Telecommunications and health industry players are required to be PDPA compliant.

As a Malaysian consumer, we have every right to be concerned if companies managing our personal data are not enforcing a certain measure of security to ensure that our data is safely kept. Companies in Europe and US are willing to invest huge dollars in a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) solution to manage internet threat intrusions. At the moment, the Multimedia and Communication Ministry has not published any data on companies in Malaysia that are allocating budgets for SIEM or some sort of Internet Security application.
Time to stop and think….

How to Be Safe
I want to be safe. I want my family members to be safe as well. What measures am I taking to make sure that only people I want to know about me, know about me?
• I and my family members do not post our actual profile pictures on Watsapp, LINE and Facebook.
• I clean up my friends’ list in Facebook every three months. ‘Friend of Friends’ will be deleted.
• I read and uncheck boxes when I sign up for newsletter/etc. online. I read the fine print.
• I do not post my Strava activity until I get home – Announcing that I am Queen of Mountain can wait.
• I do not ‘check in’ to any location using Facebook. Yes, I may miss getting some discounts from that restaurant or shop by not checking in but I really don’t think it is worth letting people know where I am at.
• I block all sms’ numbers that are marketing in nature and park them under SPAM.

Different folks may have different appetites of risk tolerance towards being bombarded by SPAM or wanting to let the world know what they are doing or where they are at. The effort level you put into ensuring that you and your family members are safe is a choice and for me, is a very important choice.
Stop and think…..

For PDPA Training/Advisory or Internet Security Applications, drop us an email at avantedge@pkfmalaysia.com or contact us at +603 6203 1888.

by Agnes Yew, PKFAE Project Manager

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