KUALA LUMPUR: The data in the MySejahtera application is owned by the government despite it not having a contract with the developer, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

       The Health Minister said the data was safe as the government had a non-disclosure agreement with the app developer, MySJ Sdn Bhd.

       He added that the custodians of the data had always been the National Cyber Security Agency, National Security Council and Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu).

       Khairy said the current issue at hand was the maintenance of the platform, adding that the court case between Entomo and MySJ Sdn Bhd had nothing to do with the government.

       “The government maintains that as far as the MySejahtera app as well as the data inside it are concerned, they are owned by the government and that is the basis of our negotiations with MySJ.

       “We have not concluded negotiations yet,” he told a press conference after the launch of the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health book titled Systems Thinking Analyses for Health Systems Policy and Systems Development: A Malaysian Case Study here yesterday.

       Khairy reiterated that his ministry would not compromise on the safety of the data.

       “If they do not agree that MySejahtera is owned by the government except perhaps specific platforms that use their source code and others, then we will not continue the agreement with them.

       “This is why I said that we are still in negotiations with them. The data is safe as it is monitored by the ministry. We did not give any consent to any party.

       “This data is not being shared with private parties and it is only used for the purpose of public health,” he added.

       MySejahtera, which was introduced in April 2020 to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, was created by KPISoft, which has since changed its name to Entomo, as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

       However, it was then sold to MySJ.

       Khairy explained that the government started negotiations with KPISoft when he noticed that there was no contract between it and the government when he took over as Health Minister.

       “It was all being done as KPISoft’s CSR, there were no payments made. However, when I was appointed Health Minister, I wanted to regularise this service as we cannot have it as a CSR (initiative) forever,” he said.

       Negotiations started with KPISoft after he notified the Cabinet about this issue, Khairy added.

       “We then notified them (KPISoft) but they informed us that they had changed their name and given the licence to MySJ to manage the platform.

       “With that, the government started discussing with MySJ,” he said.

       Khairy said the government hoped the negotiations would be a success and if not, it would choose another vendor to manage the platform as the data was still under the government.

       Asked how much had been paid to MySJ, Khairy stressed that no payment had been made.

       “At the moment, we still have not paid them anything yet. That’s why I brought the matter up with the Cabinet.

       “It is better to be transparent on this issue since it is already the end of the CSR period,” he said.

       He also said that once negotiations wrapped up, the government would announce the basis of the contract.

       On March 23, PKR president and Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim raised concerns about the sale of MySejahtera to a private company, noting that it contained private health-related information of millions of Malaysians.