and for those who support ...dun forget to go here .. www.insolvency.gov.my
NST 3rdJuly2007 :
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk M. Kayveas has challenged credit information provider Credit Tip-Off Service (CTOS) to prove that it had obtained the financial records of individuals in its database legally.
He said if the company failed to do so, it should cease its operations.
"Does CTOS have any payment receipts or evidence that the data were voluntarily given by the public? Is the company buying the information via legal means? I want proof of that," he said at a press conference at the parliament lobby yesterday.
Kayveas warned the company that if it continued to operate with outdated data, it could face legal consequences.
"Personally, I feel the company should cease operations.
"With so many complaints levelled against them, they should shut down. The public and Fomca (Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations) wanted it to be shut down."
To date, the government website, www.insolvency.gov.my, had received 850 complaints against CTOS. The website receives an average of three complaints every five minutes.
Kayveas said CTOS did not obtain permission from individuals to have their financial status stored in its database and later sold to third parties.
He said while there were provisions in the law for banks to trade information on individuals between themselves, private companies were not allowed to do so.
As a result, he claimed that CTOS had violated several laws in the country, including the Computer Crime Act 1997, the Internal Security Act 1960, the Official Secrets Act 1972 and the Human Rights Commission Act 1999.
Citing an example, Kayveas said under the Computer Crime Act, CTOS could be charged under Section 73 for providing and selling inaccurate information to third parties.
"We will study which laws could be used to act against CTOS."
Kayveas said when the issue was first highlighted, it was hoped that CTOS could update the information in its database and clear peoples’ names.
"Everyone needs a second chance, even criminals. Here, we have simple people with tiny offences being blacklisted due to CTOS historical data.
Even the government doesn’t blacklist people, so how could a private company do so?"
He said intense marketing by CTOS had caused confusion not only among the public, but also among government agencies that had used its services as they were under the impression that CTOS was government-owned.
Kayveas admitted that even the People’s Progressive Party, of which he is president, his service centre in Taiping and a law firm known as Messrs Blanche, Kayveas & Co had been subscribing to the services provided by CTOS since 1999.
However, he is unsure if his service centre and the PPP still used CTOS services.
He also claimed that CTOS made about RM80 million a year, based on 2,100 bank branches in the country which used its services.
He said CTOS had not submitted its accounts to the Companies Commission of Malaysia for the last 10 years.
CTOS has more than 13 million entries in its database compared with Bank Negara’s Central Credit Reference Information System, which has two million entries.
Asked why no action had been taken against CTOS before this, Kayveas said previously, no one had treated the matter seriously.
"But now, we are serious," he said, adding that he would visit the company on July 10 to discuss the complaints that had been received against it.
Lawyer Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim said the government should come up with a law dealing with data protection.
He said there were companies in Britain which offered similar services but they were regulated.
