PETALING JAYA: Despite the government’s aspirations for the Central Database Hub (Padu) in benefiting the people, Malaysians are finding the newly-launched system fairly underwhelming.
Remisier Heng Ghee Hoong, 43, said he was perplexed after he noticed a large amount of data was missing from the database after registering.
“It was advertised as having connected hundreds of government databases but I was surprised to see something as simple as my marital status still left empty.
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“It also required me to disclose my bank accounts, which I find weird as all the data should be available from Bank Negara,” he said.
He also expressed concern that people living in rural areas may be left out of Padu due to a lack of awareness or access.
“The government must do more to communicate the importance of Padu to them to ensure everyone who is entitled to a subsidy is not left out,” he added.
Electrical design engineer Nixon Lee, 26, found himself frustrated after trying to update his details to no avail.
“I spent my whole lunch time trying to update my details on Padu, but it kept showing me error messages, which I think is due to high traffic to the website,” he said.
Lee said he would have preferred to have Padu attached to an app instead, which would make future login and access easier.
After experiencing similar issues, retired 78-year-old IT expert Tam Yeng Siang said the database should have been tested more internally before it was released.
“While the ministry has been fast in fixing security concerns, bugs and other issues that have arisen, the fact that they are even showing up at all means the system was not tested sufficiently before release.
“From my experience in online IT project testing and implementation, such a wide-ranging system would need a significant amount of testing with live data before it can even be considered to go live.
“It almost seems like this three-month period is meant to be a ‘final test run’, which exposes the project to unnecessary risk,” he said.
Tam said the civil servants across the country would have been a perfect “testbed” instead, before opening it up to the public.
Cybersecurity and privacy expert Luke Raj, 50, said concerns over the management and potential loopholes for abuse of the database made him shy away from registering entirely.
“Padu requires a lot of extremely sensitive personal information despite the data not being protected under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) due to it being fully under the government’s purview.
“This is extremely concerning as should there be a data breach, no one will be held financially responsible for potential losses caused to the people, especially considering the shaky start Padu has already had at launch in terms of security,” he said.
He also expressed concerns over the lack of laws to protect the database from being “potentially abused” by government officials or leaders.
“There must be a clear underlying law on what government officials can and cannot do with data from Padu,” he added.
Raj said laws must be in place to protect Padu’s database along with a clear compliance framework to protect consumers, adding that if it is not done, “we risk the database being potentially misused by current or future governments either for political benefit or to indirectly punish their critics.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim launched Padu that is supposed to ensure the distribution of aid and subsidies is efficient and reaches the target groups.
He said it would also stop leakages in government assistance.
Anwar added that with Padu in place, those who are not eligible – the 3.5 million foreigners, the wealthy and those in the high-income group – would not be receiving aid as the system would be able to identify them.
Registration to Padu is open to the public from now until March 31, and users can update and confirm 39 personal details, including identification, number of household members, and their address.
