Many Governments Deny Accusations Of The US Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Concerning Protecting Human Rights Violations

Illustration/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government immediately denied accusations by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu) that the PeduliLindung application violated human rights (HAM) related to the privacy of user data.

In its report, the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the use of the PeduliLindung application made by the Indonesian government is a matter of concern because of the potential for arbitrary interference or violation of laws related to privacy, family, home, or correspondence.

This statement was made by the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs based on reports from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the name of the NGO. The NGO reported that PeduliLindung has access to store user privacy data.

Disputing this, the Secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi emphasized that the accusation of PeduliLindungi is useless and also violates human rights is something that is not basic.

"Let us carefully read the original report from the US State Department. The report does not allege the use of this application violates human rights. We ask that the parties stop twisting as if the report concludes that there was a violation," Nadia said in her statement, quoted on Sunday, 17 April.

Nadia claims, PeduliLindung has contained clear application governance principles, including the obligation to comply with the provisions of personal data protection.

Then, the development of PeduliLindung also refers to the global agreement in the WHO Joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response in 2020, which is a reference for various countries on the practice of using data and technology for Covid-19 health protocols.

"The system security aspect and protection of personal data at PeduliLindung is a priority for the Ministry of Health. All PeduliLindung features operate within a data protection and security framework," he said.

Furthermore, Nadia also revealed that consent from users has become a layer in every data exchange transaction, in addition to metadata and the data itself, for example on the check-in feature in public areas, access to devices, geolocation recording, and deletion of usage history.

"PeduliLindung has gone through a series of assessments of technical and legal aspects in the context of registering as an electronic system operator at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, and placing data in the National Data Center of the Ministry of Communication and Information," explained Nadia. "Thus, PeduliLindungi is a reliable electronic system, safe, reliable and responsible," he added.

Similarly, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD denied the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs' accusations about Care to Protect. "We created the PeduliLindung program to protect the people," said Mahfud.

He did not deny, there could be people who are disturbed because they cannot enter public facilities because they are exposed to COVID-19 and the PeduliLindung application is monitored. However, this cannot be considered a violation of human rights.

According to Mahfud, this kind of restriction must be implemented. Thus, the spread of the virus in the community can be prevented from spreading.

"That someone feels disturbed if they want to enter the mall must be scanned, it is known that their movements are further restricted is a consequence," he said.