Brittany Kaiser, formerly from Cambridge Analytica ("CA"), has just leaked information about their alleged dealings with Barisan Nasional before the GE14. CA, controversially known for illegally mining users’ data on Facebook, infamously gained prominence during the 2016 US presidential election that saw Donald Trump winning – leading to Mark Zuckerberg testifying in Congress about Facebook’s data protection policies.
LAW Partnership Intellectual Property & Technology Partner Suaran Sidhu speaks to BFM89.9 - The Business Station on the recent Cambridge Analytica leakage. Amongst others, Suaran says that although this new discovery is shocking, it is nonetheless expected given how the company has spread its wings across over 65 countries. It comes as no surprise that they got embroiled in Malaysia’s shenanigans.
As far as the Malaysian data protection laws are concerned, the illegality of the data accumulation lies in their commercial use – not its non-consensual nature in general. The Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act (2010) also exempts the government from its purview thereby not being caught under the provisions therein.
Listen to the podcast here: https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-edition/evening-edition/fresh-leaks-linking-bn-to-cambridge-analytica