Kuala lumpur: Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil today questioned the apparent double standards among critics of the government’s mobile data-sharing policy. He was responding to the strong backlash following the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) directive in June, which required telecommunications companies to provide data on all mobile phone calls made from January to March.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Fahmi, who is also the MADANI Government spokesperson, stated that the MCMC’s request was intended to assist the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in data collection. However, the policy has drawn criticism from parties concerned about privacy and data security. He highlighted the recent case where tech giant Google was fined US$314 million for allegedly harvesting data from 14 million smartphone users in California without their consent.

Fahmi pointed out that concerns are rarely raised about the kind of data freely given away daily to social media platforms, search engines, artificial intelligence, and large language models. He made these remarks during his speech at the launch of the International Connectivity Conference and Expo 2025.

On June 8, Fahmi explained that the MCMC’s request for mobile phone call data from telecommunications companies aims to support evidence-based policymaking, including enhancing network infrastructure. He clarified that the requested data does not include identities or any information that could be used to identify individuals.

The purpose of collecting the data, according to Fahmi, is to support the official statistics compiled by the DOSM. The focus is on trends to gather detailed information about network quality, user engagement levels, and the number of users in sub-districts or districts.