TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Speaker of the House Puan Maharani calls for the government to prioritize the protection of Indonesian citizens' personal data within the framework of trade deals with other countries. The government, she said, must consider the provisions laid out in personal data protection regulations before taking initiatives to avoid causing public turmoil.
"The government must protect the existing personal data of Indonesian citizens, for which we already have the Personal Data Protection Law," said Puan on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
Puan urged relevant ministries to disclose the extent of the agreement with the United States concerning the transfer of personal data. She also requested clarification regarding the protection guaranteed under the Personal Data Protection Law Number 27 of 2022.
"Explain whether indeed the personal data of Indonesian citizens are already protected and to what extent. And what about our personal data protection law? Does it really protect the data of Indonesian citizens?" she said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Communication and Digital Meutya Hafid explained that the data transfer in question does not entail freely giving personal data. According to her, it actually serves as a clear legal basis in regulating the cross-border data flow. She added that the trade deal between Indonesia and the United States is still in the finalization stage, and technical discussions will continue.
"The government ensures that data transfer to the United States is not arbitrary," she said in a written statement on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo was hesitant to comment on the personal data transfer deal, giving a brief response, "Later.. the negotiations are ongoing."
Personal data transfer is outlined under the joint statement released by the White House on Tuesday this week. There are 12 key terms in the statement posted on the official website of the White House.
One of the key terms concerns Indonesia's commitment to removing barriers that affect digital trade, services, and investment. "Indonesia will provide certainty regarding the ability to move personal data out of its territory to the United States," as written in the official document on the White House website.
The agreement also includes Indonesia's commitment to eliminate tariffs in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) for intangible products and suspend import declaration requirements. The U.S. government views this step as supporting an immediate and unconditional permanent moratorium on electronic transmission duties at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The HTS is a classification system for imported goods used by the U.S. to determine duties and collect trade statistics. Each imported item is given a unique HTS code as the basis for tariff and quota calculations.
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