Stefanie Yuen Thio was quoted by Poh Lay Hoon on Lianhe Zaobao. The article covered how the government should provide businesses with clearer guidelines on NRIC numbers (p. 3).
Stefanie was quoted saying that she hopes the government will clarify how its new stance of no longer hiding NRIC numbers will affect companies’ data collection and privacy obligations. She pointed out that according to Personal Data Protection Commission guidelines, organisations are generally not allowed to collect, use or disclose NRIC numbers.
Further, Stefanie said this guideline needed to be updated, as if the government no longer regards NRIC numbers as confidential, it is unfair for companies to be punished for the leakage of such data. She also believes that the combination of partial NRIC numbers and date of birth is not suitable as a secure identity verification method and hopes that the government will implement more secure methods in the future.
New verification technologies will also need to be constantly upgraded to deter criminals.
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