Are your children safe?

October 13, 2008

Treespotter has been posting information that the Indonesian Ministry of Education has put up a database in the internet of the details of schoolchildren.

If true, the implications are bewildering. There are a lot of bad people out there lurking in the internet. How do we protect our children from them if alltheir contact information is posted on the web?

clipped from treespotter.blogspot.com

Indonesian Ministry of Education put up a database of students online – public, private and religious schools, including at least some international and expat schools. It’s a work in progress designed to capture all of 36 million students nationwide, searchable by region and attaches the excel files containing the student details – names, date and place of birth and addresses. I’m not sure how many students are presently included – there are hundreds, if not thousands of XLS files, some of them a few thousands names. My estimate is there are some 1 million names at this point. Some underground lists have already circulating compiled Excel tables from the separate files but anyone could do it themselves if they wish to do so. A casual glance on the blogosphere seems to suggest that the database is indeed, very much current and accurate. (my previous post here includes links to some of the outraged parents at the bottom).

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Indonesia

6 responses to “Are your children safe?”

Are your children safe? | Schools online

October 13, 2008 at 2:22 pm

[…] Indonesian Ministry of Education put up a database of students online – public, priva Source Online schools – […]

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Bonar

October 13, 2008 at 9:53 pm

THIS, is actually an opportunity to offer the government a new service.

One can offer the government to make a nationwide secure database system. We need lobbyists to push this mega-million-dollar project to the legislators.

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Leonnie FM

October 14, 2008 at 9:40 am

@Bonar,
Our country definitely needs men with quick business minds to boost the economic for the better Indonesia.
But my friend, at this very moment, at this very point.. we need to focus on getting the data withdrawn from diknas website & then the cache deleted from search engine. Why? because we must put the safety of Indonesian children on top of every agenda.
After the data is withdrawn, we could always talk something else.. secure system.. & the business opportunity within.

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wicak

October 14, 2008 at 9:58 am

@ LeonnieFM,

agree. i think the prudent action should have been to take down the whole data. Think carefully, get inputs from both sides (parents, lawyers, education proffesionals, etc) then, consider on putting the data up.

But again to echo your statement: first and foremost is the safety and privacy of the children.

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Bonar

October 14, 2008 at 10:25 am

@LeonnieFM:
I’m sorry for being such an insensitive jerk.

But to be honest, my comment was just a sarcastic and a bit bitter comment. Coz, even now, somebody might already be doing what i said. Dont ask me who, or what’s his/her connection to the xls data.

After all, this is Indonesia, we only have 2 options for goverment bureaucrats: incompetent ones, or greedy ones.

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Leonnie FM

October 14, 2008 at 10:58 am

@Bonar,
Noted.
Kindly help us spread the news to raise the awareness.

Have a nice day 🙂

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