TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - General Elections Commission (KPU) Chairman Ilham Saputra said the personal information of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, including the latter’s citizen identification number (NIK), published on its website had been taken down.

The President’s personal data have come under the public spotlight after Jokowi's COVID-19 vaccination certificate showing his NIK and other data from the government’s COVID-19 surveillance app Pedulilindungi widely circulated on social media.

“We have taken it down now,” said Ilham at the Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Monday, September 6.

He explained that the data publication was part of the 2019 presidential election process. The data was also uploaded with the approval of the candidates. Thus, Ilham said the publication of the President’s personal data was not a data breach.

“I don’t think it is data leak because it is part of our job to question candidates in advance as to whether they want their data to be published or not,” Ilham said.

Recently, a vaccination certificate of the President widely circulated on social media. The Communications and Information Technology Ministry said the spreader accessed the certificate via the PeduliLindungi app using the personal data published on the KPU website.

Following the uproar, the Health Ministry decided to lock the data of Jokowi and other state officials in the app. “This does not mean that the government does not maintain the security of other public data in the PeduliLindungi app,” said the ministry’s spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, on Saturday, September 4.

Read: Jokowi's Personal Data Leaked; Health Minister Secures Data in PeduliLindungi

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