on Diknas Update

This is quick roundup of the latest updates on the leaked names of Indonesian students information online.

From last week’s response in the blogosphere, it seems like the Department of Education moved swiftly to remove Date of Birth and Addresses from the XLS file. The files however, are still widely accessible to everyone. While this is a positive development many people are still expressing concerns about why it is not completely removed.

Nobody objects to the Dept. of Education proud progress in embracing technology - generally, I think most will agree to accept and support in good spirit the remarkable efforts in to embrace and utilize modern technology infrastructure to help improve the quality of education.

The questions and concerns are specific to the wisdom of making the data openly available to the general public. I personally think the files should be removed entirely from public access - the potential harm to millions of children should outweigh the need to have it online – even without the complete addresses (school address is enough to direct any malicious intent).

A small number of mainstream media seemed to have also picked up on the news although during this busy news cycle, lots of it is buried under the economic headline. Among others, Detik.com (indonesia’s leading news portal) is providing continuous update and is probably the best reference for latest official response from the authority. CNet Asia had similarly linked to my previous post and Spiegel Online reported it in German. I noticed from my referral links that AP/Reuters (I think) ran a wire update on it and a few other regional papers including the Australian, Strait Times and Wired all seem to have mention it during the last week. I don’t follow local papers too closely, but sadly enough, I am not aware if any of them is raising this issue yet. I sincerely hope that more local papers will report the story and bring the awareness to the general public, millions of parents deserve to know.

While most of the initial reports link to my post, I am reluctant to pretend to be authoritative in this matter as there are obviously many more other people more knowledgeable than myself in the privacy issues, ID legal framework and indeed, the potential risks posed to millions of children nationwide.

For media reference, I would encourage you to get in touch with any of the following names as media contact (all of whom had indicated their willingness and/or positively well credentialed in their respective fields). I list only names and institutions, phone and contact details are available via mail:

- Homayra Sellier from Innocence in Danger (a UNESCO organization)

- Fetri Miftach  and Jim Geovedi, both expert security researchers from Bellua, an internationally recognized firm in computer security

- Budi Putra, a leading computer expert and renowned local blogger
- Jeremy Wagstaff, of Loosewire, a regional technology columnist and commentator
- Ahmad Fikri Assegaf, partner at Assegaf, Hamzah and Partners
- Rob Baiton of Hukumonline.com, legal commentator and practitioner in Indonesia is a notable mention for his analysis on the legal framework as well as some of the dangers posed. He is available online here.
- (I still need the contact details of the person in charge at the Dept. of Education, if anyone can help).

Below is a partial list of the media coverage. I think it is important that our colleagues in the media exert their influence in this matter and raise the public concerns to bring the authority to make the necessary changes. Again, this is a partial list as I can’t really keep up with the more recent ones.

- Detik.com, 
- Spiegel Online (in German), 
- Netspolitik.org (in German)
- Security.org
- Asia CNet.com

I have been personally in touch with my colleagues at Google and so have a few of my friends, including some expat parents with names in the database. Google is currently moving to remove the index from their cache and databases provided that the original is also removed. I will keep you updated of this progress when I know more.

Additionally, all blogs listed below have posts on the subject – many of them are parents with children in the Indonesian education system, including some who are included in the database. The list is by no means comprehensive – I follow mostly only the English based blogs – there are a great number of well qualified Indonesian bloggers and concerned parents out there and they are too numerous to list. If you include your links in the comment box, I will make sure that you will be included here.

In English:
- Unspun,
- Rob Baiton 
- Loosewire

- Jakartass

In Indonesian:

- Fajar Jasmin  <- with good Indonesian links
- Ndorokakung 
- Budiputra
- 3nappies
- Venus to Mars, 

Probably most impressive are EVERYBODY on Twitter who was very loud and very quick in helping to spread the words around (it’s a bit harder to list everyone on my Twitter since I’m a complete newbie, but you can sign up and look for me there).

Again, I can’t stress this enough – while the list above looks impressive – it’s not by any means a job done. It will take some more work to raise the awareness for Indonesian educators to pay attention to the safety of their children. I encourage everyone to voice their concerns and make sure that the authority takes all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of millions of these innocent children. Nobody would like to see anything bad happen – one victim will be one too many for this simple negligence.

(my previous posts on the subject are here and here and both contains even more links to parents blogs, etc.)

Regards, and have a happy weekend, all.