Hahaha, funny "death threat"!

Dr John Lim, who initiated the petition, said the National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) numbers of petitioners were collected only to ascertain that “this is a petition signed by Singaporeans and Permanent Residents”.

SINGAPORE: Websites petitioning to make Mar 23, the day on which the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, “a gazetted public holiday” were pulled on Wednesday (Apr 1) morning, due to public concern over the collection of personal data.

The websites, lkyday.com and 1923-2015.com, required petitioners to include their name, email, telephone number and National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) number.

The online petition was initiated by Dr John Lim, the President of Academy of Certified Counsellors on Sunday (Mar 29) afternoon. The website, lkyday.com was created after his friends gave him feedback that “1923-2015” was too difficult to remember, Dr Lim said. Both websites are under the same account set up with the hosting domain.

He said the reason for the freeze of both websites on Wednesday morning “before 2am” was because members of the public made complaints to the domain that the collection of NRIC numbers is “used for marketing purposes”.

“The host provider of the website needed to clarify with us whether the petition is a scam. They also pulled it because being a new website, it was receiving a lot of traffic,” said Dr Lim.

In response to the accusations, he said that the NRIC numbers were collected to reflect that “this is a petition signed by Singaporeans and Permanent Residents”.

“When it comes to other petitions, we see that they only ask for the names and numbers – and names and numbers can be faked. We wanted this to be a good concrete petition,” he said.

He also said that the Privacy Policy was clearly stated on the websites and on the petition’s Facebook page, Petition For LKY Day. It wrote: “Your information will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any company for any reason whatsoever, without our consent, other than for the purpose of this petition.”

The freeze of both websites was not the only backlash the petition received. Dr Lim said that his wife Mdm Tan Lay Geok, who initiated the petition with him, also a death threat via email. A post on the petition’s Facebook page said that the same message was also sent to many others, and Dr Lim has since filed a police report.



“I respect differing opinions, but false accusations must be debunked,” he said. “We are going according to the petition rules in Singapore – even my personal data is there. I signed the petition as well.”

According to the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPA) of Singapore, individuals need to be “informed of and consent to the purposes for which their personal data, including NRIC numbers, are collected, used, and disclosed by organisations”.

While the collection of NRIC numbers is not illegal, organisations should – “as a best practice” - avoid the over-collection of personal data, including NRIC numbers, where it is not required for their business or legal purposes.

“The PDPA allows organisations to use NRIC numbers collected for reasonable purposes for which consent has been obtained validly under the PDPA. However, organisations should consider the potential consequences of using NRIC numbers for a particular purpose,” said the PDPA in its advisory guidelines.

It added that organisations should also consider whether there may be alternatives available that address their requirements.

Dr Lim said the domain provider, iHosting Provider, is working on putting back the website up. “They should have clarified with us first, but I understand because the domain provider is based in the US and there is a time zone difference.”

Despite the setbacks faced, Dr Lim is nonetheless “encouraged” by the signatures collected. “Before the website was pulled, we collected 1,700 signatures.” On the other hand, the Facebook page has garnered 276 likes.

“We are just simple folks who want to do something to help the young remember the timeless values and principles that LKY embraced for the development of this nation – such as integrity, space for every race and religion”, he said.

Dr Lim added that he has a figure of 10,000 signatures in mind, after which the signatures will be submitted to the Ministry of Manpower and the Prime Minister’s Office.