DECEMBER 6 — I refer to the article published in the Malay Mail on December 5, 2020 entitled "Amid privacy concerns, cybersecurity expert says social media apps more intrusive than MySejahtera.”

There is widespread concern about how the data is being managed in the MySejahtera application. The government has come out many times to explain. Yet, many are still concerned about privacy, personal data harvesting and even the perception that the government is using this application to track its citizens.

I believe these concerns are valid and the government need to respond to them clearly and transparently. The explanation is given in this article, unfortunately, does not ally these concerns. Here is why.

MySejahtera is not a social application

The responses given by Fong Choong Fook in the said article does not fully address the issues. Firstly, I do not agree that we should even compare MySejahtera application with social media applications such as Facebook, Telegram WhatsApp Snapchat or even Instagram. This is because MySejahtera is NOT a social media application.

According to the FAQ section on mysejahtera.gov.my, this is the definition of the MySejahtera:

MySejahtera is an application developed by the Government of Malaysia to assist in managing the Covid-19 outbreaks in the country. It allows users to perform health self-assessment on themselves and their families.

The users can also monitor their health progress throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. In addition, MySejahtera enables Ministry of Health (MOH) to monitor users' health condition and take immediate actions in providing the treatments required.

MySejahtera application is developed to: