Buying And Selling Personal Data Prone To Be Used By Political Parties Or Independent Candidates, Bawaslu Proposes Verification Through Census

Coordinator of the Legal, Public Relations, Data and Information Division of the General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Fritz Edward Siregar (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Coordinator of the Legal, Public Relations, Data, and Information Division of the General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), Fritz Edward Siregar, said that there is potential for election fraud due to the rampant buying and selling of personal data belonging to Indonesian citizens.

"As you know, now we are a bit excited about the data of citizens being traded. That is a concern for Bawaslu", said Fritz at the Sidak Bawaslu event in Cilegon City, Banten, as reported by Antara, Thursday, November 11.

Fritz explained that the fraud that could be caused by the sale of the data was the potential for fraud during the registration of political parties to participate in the general election, as well as the registration of independent candidates for regional head elections.

"There is one-thousandth of the total population for registration of political parties to enter the number of members of their political parties, it is possible that the data (citizens who are traded) can be used", he said.

Therefore, Fritz said that there must be a verification process through the census to ensure the correctness of the data used by political parties or independent candidates when registering themselves as eligible participants.

"There must be a more detailed verification process by the KPU (General Election Commission) and Bawaslu being allowed to see the results of the verification", he said.

Using citizen data that is traded by hackers or third parties is an illegal act. Using this data, he continued, could result in the parties involved being subject to sanctions due to violations of criminal law.

“They will be subject to criminal law violations, both for violating the Election Law and for violating the Criminal Law, for example forging signatures. We as Bawaslu warn parties not to use this data in the 2024 general election and regional elections", he said.

Currently, Fritz said that Bawaslu is making improvements, both improvements to the information system and the system of violations to maximize the implementation of the 2024 simultaneous elections.