Single Data Availability

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

A student of South Jakarta’s SMK 28 Cilandak vocational school holds still as an officer from the South Jakarta Population and Civil Registry Agency scans her retina for an e-ID card at the school on 10 Jan. 2019.

The availability of single data is increasingly urgent. Experience shows that the various kinds of data lead to poor decision making.

The soil liquefaction natural disaster in Palu, Central Sulawesi, last year caused fatalities and losses of property because residential areas were built in areas where they should not have been allowed. We also hear overlapping data on land use in many places, one of which is in Kalimantan. Various cases of land conflicts also originate from the confusing data, either because of purposeful acts for personal gain or because of negligence.

The expression that the value of data is more precious than the entire world oil reserves is not new. President Joko Widodo repeated this information in his speech. The Economist Magazine May 6, 2017, said data was a resource more valuable than petroleum.

We still remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which personal data was taken from social media platforms such as Facebook without the knowledge of the owners of that data. The data was used to influence voters in the 2016 US presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum.

Indonesia has been trying for more than 10 years to create single data on population, spatial and disaster-prone areas. There is no need to worry about the benefits of single data. Single and accurate data is the basis for planning, coordinating and synchronizing government policies.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO (

An officer of the South Jakarta Population and Civil Registry Agency takes a digital fingerprint of a student on 10 Jan. 2019 at SMK 28 Cilandak vocational school in South Jakarta to process their e-ID card.

For the business world, for example, having consumer data makes marketing efficient because it accurately targets consumers. For politicians, citizen data in the electoral districts is useful for sending campaign messages according to the profile of the target voters. Digital technology, including data from satellites, enables the compilation of single data faster so that it can be utilized more efficiently.

The government recognizes the commotion of single national data. The 2020 Population Census by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) will be a means to collect and improve the quality of population data. The census will be used to collect data on the number, distribution and characteristics of the population (Kompas, 23/11/2019).

The law to protect personal data must be drafted as soon as possible so that there is no misuse by any party, both from within and outside the country, including crooked government officials and the business world.

As citizens, we should support the existence of single national data through our participation in the 2020 Population Census. Along with the collection of single national data, the protection of the personal data of the population must be carried out immediately. The law to protect personal data must be drafted as soon as possible so that there is no misuse by any party, both from within and outside the country, including crooked government officials and the business world.