CYBERJAYA, June 10 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has confirmed that the Cabinet approved the use of mobile phone data for national analytics in April 2023, following a proposal led by Economy Minister Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli. The initiative, titled Projek Data Raya Nasional: Mobile Phone Data, aims to generate insights into population trends, ICT usage, and tourism dynamics.
As part of the programme, mobile network operators (MNOs) are required to provide anonymised data such as subscriber identifiers, location coordinates, activity timestamps, and network type. MCMC deputy managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin emphasized that the data collected will be anonymised and aggregated, ensuring it does not fall under the scope of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010.
Despite privacy concerns, individuals cannot opt out of the programme due to Cabinet approval. Zulkarnain also noted that public consultation has not yet occurred, as current efforts focus on preparing MNOs and reinforcing data protection protocols. To safeguard user privacy, MCMC has offered MNOs two data processing options.
Operators with in-house capabilities currently CelcomDigi and Maxis — may process data internally and share only aggregated results. Other providers may submit anonymised data directly to MCMC through secure channels. Data collection for Q1 2025 began in May and will support analytics for both the ICT and tourism sectors, the latter of which is currently in a pilot phase set to run until 2026.
