PETALING JAYA: Market observers have urged the government to be clear with its intention over the future use of the MySejahtera app.

       “The government needs to be transparent about its intentions and be accountable as it involves personal data.

       “There is a need for the government to solve this matter due to the sensitive nature of the data. The government may need to take over the MySejahtera app, at least for now,” former Transparency International president Tan Sri Dr Ramon Navaratnam told StarBiz.

       He pointed out that the application should not be held by a private entity due the kind of data the application collected.

       The ownership of the MySejahtera app has raised public concern, especially over privacy and data protection risk.

       Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has reassured the public that the personal information on the MySejahtera application is protected by the government with a non-disclosure agreement, and is not shared with the private sector or a third party.

       He said the main issue was the maintenance of the platform and that the government would opt for another vendor if it cannot get a fair deal with MySejahtera licence holder MySJ Sdn Bhd.

       It was reported that the app was developed as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

       Astramina Advisory Sdn Bhd founder and managing director Datin Wong Muh Rong said the intention for the MySejahtera app to be a CSR programme should remain.

       “It doesn’t matter who owns the app, but the issue is with the commercialisation of the app and the purpose of it being a CSR programme should not change,” she said.

       Market observers said the ownership of the application came about after some parties were said to be interested in commercialising the application.

       Court documents showed that MySejahtera developer Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd had agreed to transfer the intellectual property and the licensing fees for the Software of the App to MySJ Sdn Bhd for RM338.6mil. That deal is now subject of a legal case among the shareholders.

       The document also revealed the intent of “MYSJ and the licensed agreement is to make and prepare MYSJ as the vehicle to commercialise the app.”

       Universiti Sains Malaysia senior lecturer of political science Azmil Tayeb said the government should not be included for commercialisation purposes, as it could breach public trust.

       “The app should not be commercialised since it was made in public interest and collective effort to fight the pandemic. The data collected is a public trust.

       “At this juncture, I believe that the government should provide an opt-out option for those who do not want their information used other than for contact tracing purposes” he said.

       A report by CodeBlue said the sole shareholder of Entomo Malaysia, Entomo Pte Ltd, which owns the software used to develop MySejahtera app, is a company registered and based in Singapore.

       It said Entomo Pte Ltd has paid-up capital of SG$10.2mil (RM26mil).

       On July 1, 2020, the National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement that KPISoft, which is now named Entomo Malaysia, was founded by two Malaysians – Anuar Rozhan and Raveenderen Ramamoothie. They were also the biggest shareholders of the company.

       NSC also said KPISoft was a local MSC-status company founded in 2010.

       The ongoing court court dispute is between the shareholders of MySJ, which was initiated by P2 Asset Management in November last year against Entomo Malaysia, Revolusi Asia and MySJ over alleged breach of a share sale agreement.