MCMC's phone data grab is not harmless
COMMENT | In 2018 and again in 2022, Malaysians voted for reform, demanding greater transparency, democratic rights, and a government that listens.
That is why the public backlash to recent revelations about the MCMC mobile data request has been swift and entirely justified.
According to local and international media reports, such as The Edge and South China Morning Post, MCMC issued directives to five major telcos requesting mobile phone metadata for the first quarter of 2025.
The fields listed include anonymised user IDs (MSISDN), precise date and time stamps, base station identifiers, GPS coordinates, data type (calls or internet), service type (2G - 5G) and mobile country code.
On paper, names or identity card (IC) numbers were excluded, but in practice, metadata is never truly anonymous.
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COMMENT | In 2018 and again in 2022, Malaysians voted for reform, demanding greater transparency, democratic rights, and a government that listens. That is why the public backlash to recent revelations about the MCMC mobile data request has been swift and entirely justified. According to local and international media reports, such as The Edge and South China Morning Post, MCMC issued directives to five major telcos requesting mobile phone metadata for the first quarter of 2025. The fields listed include anonymised user IDs (MSISDN), precise date and time stamps, base station identifiers, GPS coordinates, data type (calls or internet), service type (2G - 5G) and mobile country code. On paper, names or identity card (IC) numbers were excluded, but in practice, metadata is never truly anonymous.
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