Couple of weeks ago, someone from a marketing company called me...

Girl: Hallo..mr. xes.. I am calling from xx marketing sdn bhd. I would like to conduct a survey.
Me: Sure
Girl: Before we proceed, can I call you to verify your details?
Me: Ok.
Girl: Your name is xes, staying in House Number xxx.. .
Me: err. Yes.
Girl: Can you verify that your identity card number is 8xxxxxxx...?
Me: How did you get the number?
Girl: I don't know. Maybe you gave it to some clubs when you were clubbing.
Me: Ok, I'm not going to verify anything. I'm not comfortable in providing you my personal information.
Girl: eer...okkk...

It's better to be safe than sorry. The amount of fraud that is happening is worrying. It's so easy to get personal information of a person nowadays. But is your personal information protect by the Malaysian law? The Personal Data Protection Bill that was proposed in early 2000 has disappeared into thin air. The "new" Personal Data Protection Act is still not being tabled in the parliament. So in the meantime, if someone misuses your personal information online for their personal gain, do you have a remedy? What can do you do?

Perhaps all these can be answered at the Forum on Identity Theft in the Cyber World. KL Bar Information Technology Committee is organising a Forum on Identity Theft

Date: 20.11.2008
Time: 3.00pm
Venue: Bar Council Auditorium
1st Floor, No 13 - 17, Leboh Pasar Besar, Kuala Lumpur.

Speakers:
1. Deepak Pillai - Advocate & Solicitor
2. Prof. Abu Bakar Munir – Professor in Law from University of Malaya
3. Shamsul Jafni Salleh - former Director of Security, Trust and Governance Department of Malaysian Communication And Multimedia Commission (MCMC)
Admission: FREE

Here are some relevant websites listed down by Richard Wee:

In April 2008, the New Straits Times focus on this issue of Identity Theft in Cyber Space.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/LearningCurve/20080419163016/Article/index_html

IN UK, there is even a dedicated website for this
http://www.identity-theft.org.uk/what-is-identity-theft.asp

IN US there are laws specifically dealing with this.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/privacy/idt-statutes.htm

A case on point is the case of Edward Anderton an American Ivy League graduate who was sentenced to a 4 year jail term for stealing identities and living a lavish live at other people's expense, of course. See link:-
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,451944,00.html

The Information Technology Law Committee of KL Bar views this problem to be a serious one. The upcoming Forum this Thursday is a platform to discuss this issue. The Forum will host 3 great speakers, and we hope as many people as possible will attend. Entrance is Free.

For registration information, please contact Masni at the KL Bar Secretariat at 03- 26933585 or masni@klbar.org.my

I will be there!