OVER the years, I have received many phone calls from sales agents and tele-marketers trying to sell me products and services, ranging from healthcare, insurance, loans, credit cards to hotel loyalty programmes. And every time I ask about the source of their information about me, the response is always the same – they were taken from the database.

While customer information is supposed to be used responsibly and with utmost priority to facilitate specific transactions, banks today still leak out customer’s confidential data to their own internal divisions or worse, sell them to third parties for monetary gains. This includes our home address, contact number, identity card number and even our car registration numbers!

To tell you the truth, I have a hard time trusting any financial institution with my money when they prove to be untrustworthy with protecting something so basic as my personal data and credit information.

Like banks, there are leaks in politics too.

Recently, we read about how deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi used his position to obtain personal information of a fellow Malaysian from the National Registration Department (NRD). This information however, was not gathered for verification or national security purposes and was not associated to any matters which came under the purview of Zahid’s Home Affairs Ministry.

Instead, the information was obtained with the intention of shaming Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

As a concerned citizen, I am appalled by Zahid’s actions, which are not only unethical, but downright illegal. It opens a flood gate and sets a precedence for other politicians to obtain confidential information of any citizens from their respective state government bodies for their own political mileage.

While politicians and elected officials evade sharing their personal information with the public even if it is to promote political, social and economic transparency on their side, it is utterly disgraceful to see them having no qualms about getting access to confidential data belonging to a citizen of Malaysia for personal reasons.

This, in my honest opinion, is a breach of trust.

And any politician, leader or representative of the government who cannot uphold the trust given by the people of Malaysia, is definitely not worthy of representing the people.

Imagine having the prime minister’s private financial details leaked out – how fast would the authorities react to detect the leaker’s identity and the source of the leakage? I imagine lightning fast. After all, the leakage would be of ‘personal concern’ to the prime minister.

Even if those caught responsible for the leakage claim to be acting on behalf of the ‘public interest’ – to expose corruption and wrongdoings – I am sure they will nevertheless be bound by the rules of confidentiality.

While the government aims to keep official secrets confidential for the sake of national security, shouldn’t the people too have equal rights to have their personal information kept confidential by the government?

The culprit who broke this rule of confidentiality should be prosecuted.

The one million ringgit question however, would be – will that ever happen? – August 3, 2017.

* Fa Abdul is a passionate storyteller and a resident agitator of the idiots in society. Well-known for her straight-talking sarcasm and occasional foul mouth, she juggles between her work as a writer, producer and director.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.