COMMUNICATIONS and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil told the Dewan Negara today the government does not intend to collect fingerprints in the implementation of the National Digital Identity (NDID) programme as claimed by many content creators on various social media platforms.

He said since the announcement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, there have been many inaccurate, misleading and false content circulated on social media.

“Even though the NDID programme is under Mimos and not KKD (Communications and Digital Ministry), I take this opportunity to clarify that we do not intend to collect fingerprints. The digital ID is a single sign-on initiative and this is what we are trying to convey to the people.

“Fingerprint information and other biometric identifiers are under the (purview of the) Home Ministry and the National Registration Department,” he said in reply to Senator Manolan Mohamad.

Prior to this, the ministry had assured the NDID would not compromise the security of the personal data of the people. It was also said the initiative has been adopted in countries such as Estonia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.

On November 21, Anwar announced the government had appointed the national research and development centre, Mimos Berhad, for the NDID programme with an initial allocation of RM80 million.

According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the NDID facilitates citizens to transact face-to-face or remotely in the digital realm with service providers from both the public and private sectors for secure, guaranteed, and time-saving identity verification. – Bernama, November 30, 2023.