The pandemic has had a significant impact on every country in the world in various sectors and industries. However, the epidemic has also inspired people to speed up their adoption of digital technology. ,This, in turn, has resulted in an increase in the amount of time individuals spend in the digital world.
“The average Indonesian people access the internet for more than 8 hours every day, both to find information and communicate to work online, study online, shop online and other online activities,” says Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Director General of Informatics Applications at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
According to research conducted by Indonesian internet service providers, 210 million people in Indonesia now utilise the internet, which is 77% of the country’s entire population.
Director General Semuel believes that awareness and responsible management of the processing of personal data must be balanced with people’s lifestyles in the digital world.
The Director General emphasised that all activities in the digital space produce data that can be used to create new services or make decisions and policies. These decisions are often known as “data-driven decisions.”
He added that the legal basis for protecting personal data is still spread across 32 regulations, such as the telecommunications sector, the Electronic Information and Transaction Law and Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 Concerning the Implementation of Electronic Systems and Transactions.
To provide Indonesia with a comprehensive legal framework that governs the protection of personal data, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics and the Indonesian House of Representatives continue to work on the Personal Data Protection Bill.
Meanwhile, the 3rd Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) Meeting of the G20 Indonesia Presidency ended with a workshop about the flow of data across national borders. The goal of the workshop is to improve the cross-border data flow agenda for the G20 ministerial meeting in September 2022.
Each of the G20 countries held in-depth discussions to reach a mutual agreement on the agenda for cross-country data flows.
Not only G20 member countries, but also private sectors, international organisations, academics, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are taking part in the discussion of the agenda related to data flow across borders.
Indonesia is working hard to implement the cross-border data flow agenda as soon as possible for it to be compatible with the regulations under consideration, particularly the rules pertaining to the draught personal data protection (PDP) legislation.
The expectation is that the rule will safeguard domestic consumers when they engage in financial transactions on the digital market. According to him, Indonesians frequently utilise foreign digital markets.
It will be very vital in the future to execute a cross-border data flow agreement, as this will allow all G20 member countries to have a good impact on each other. Hence, there are currently efforts being made to establish global platform applications that are active in the countries that make up the G20.
As the country with the largest economy in the ASEAN region, Indonesia has pledged to make the problem of the flow of data across borders a topic of discussion at the G20 summit.
When it comes to streamlining the purchase and sale of goods and services, digital industries frequently include the exchange of data across international borders. The constantly expanding realm of electronic commerce is the primary driver of data flows, which ultimately result in data being monetised and contributing to the value of global markets.
