REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Ministry of Communication and Informatics have sent a second written warning to Facebook on Tuesday over the misuse of personal data by a third party. The letter, signed by Director General of Informatics Application Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan.
In his letter, Samuel warned Facebook Indonesia to provide confirmation and explanation with regard to the issue of misuse of personal information by third party applications using Facebook's platform.
In a statement received Wednesday, the ministry has called on Facebook to give assurance on the protection of personal information in accordance with Regulation of Minister of Communication and Informatics No. 20 of 2016 on the Protection of Personal Information in Electronic Systems.
Facebook, as an electronic system organizer, is obligated to meet the standards outlined in the regulation on the protection of personal information.
With regard to applications or features developed by third parties, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics has called on Facebook to immediately provide the results of an audit of applications and features, developed by its partners.
Written reports of the audit results are needed to evaluate potential problems arising from applications and features developed by partners of Facebook, including the use of personal data taken by its partners.
The ministry found additional company information that allegedly resembled Cambridge Analytica, such as CubeYou and AgregateIQ. Applications in the form of quizzes and personality tests were potentially used for abuse of personal data of Facebook users.
To this end, the ministry has urged Facebook to close the application and/or quiz feature for personality tests to prevent potential abuse of personal data of its users in Indonesia.
The Ministry of Communications and Informatics had earlier issued the first warning letter on Apr 5, which prompted Facebook to guarantee the protection of personal data, provide the results of the application audit plan and features developed by partners, and close the application or quiz feature associated with Cambrigde Anaytica Case.
In response, the government has received two official letters from Facebook via three mails, but the Ministry of Communications and Informatics assessed that the explanation furnished was still inadequate and has yet to include data sought by the Indonesian government.
Consequently, the steps and stages of compliance with legislation and regulations are carried out in protecting the rights of the people.
Meanwhile, Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started testifying before Congress on Tuesday as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network. The 33-year-old internet mogul faces tough questioning from a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate's Commerce and Judiciary committees.
John Thune, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, struck an adversarial tone in his opening remarks. "In the past, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been willing to defer to tech companies' efforts to regulate themselves. But this may be changing," he said.
Hours before the hearing, people waited in a line inside the Hart Senate Office Building, set off by velvet ropes, stretching from the briefing room down a corridor. Some brought folding chairs, while others stood or sat on the floor.
Outside the Capitol building, which houses Congress, online protest group Avaaz set up 100 life-sized cutouts of Zuckerberg wearing T-shirts with the words 'Fix Facebook.'
Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004, is fighting to prove to critics that he is the right person to go on leading what has grown into one of the world's largest companies. Facebook faces a growing crisis of confidence among users, advertisers, employees and investors after acknowledging that up to 87 million people, mostly in the United States, had their personal information harvested from the site by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump's election campaign among its clients.
On Friday, Zuckerberg threw his support behind proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads.
Facebook shares were up 2.5 percent in afternoon trading.
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