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With the passage of the Philippine SIM card registration law, digital rights advocates expound further on its impact on privacy, free expression, and data security, and why civil society needs to monitor the law's implementation.

EngageMedia supports the statement by the Foundation for Media Alternatives urging Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to veto the SIM Card Registration Act. The proposed measure poses serious threats to privacy and free expression.

In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, 28 organisations from around the world are demanding that Facebook stop intimidating users reliant on WhatsApp to accept its latest privacy policy. Facebook should immediately restore the individual’s right to determine how their private, personal data is collected and exploited on WhatsApp.

There are a growing number of messaging applications available to us, but many of these are not transparent in the amount of user data they collect and the lack of privacy measures in place to secure our conversations. To help Indonesians better understand which messaging apps protect their users the most, Coconet member Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) has published a “Guide to Choosing a Privacy-Protecting Conversation App”.

In the December 2020 issue of ASEANFocus, EngageMedia Co-Founder and Executive Director Andrew Lowenthal underlines the need for government policy change and civil society advocacy to protect digital privacy. The article, republished here in full, is one of ten articles that tackle digitalisation in Southeast Asia.

On the evening of April 22, 2020, researcher Ravio Patra was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, not long after an attempt to protect his safety due to a WhatsApp privacy breach. His work has captured the interest of many, notably his most recent critique on the sparse handling of COVID-19 by the Jokowi administration.