Harry Elias Partnership Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim commented in the Straits Times article titled “Police monitoring websites offering vice, illegal loans”. The article was first published on 26 September 2020.
Police monitoring websites offering vice, illegal loans
The police are actively trawling the Internet for websites offering vice or unlicensed money-lending services here, in a bid to arrest the growing problem of loan sharks and online vice.
Tender documents seen by The Straits Times (ST) show the Singapore Police Force (SPF) had requested a service to “conduct proactive trawling of the Internet for vice-related and unlicensed money-lending related websites” and rank them according to traffic volume.
The service should also be able to monitor monthly access to such sites via mobile or non-mobile channels and track the number of vice workers advertised on each site.
The tender was awarded to StarHub on July 29, with the service due to be delivered last month.
Below is an excerpt from the article which features comments by KK:
However, users here need not fear they will be punished for accessing unlicensed money-lending or vice websites, said experts.
Mr Lim Kian Kim, head of cyber security, privacy and data protection at law firm Harry Elias Partnership who goes by the initials K.K., said visiting such websites is not illegal, as they are open to the public. But he added that there are sectoral rules governing the operation of such sites in Singapore, citing the Moneylenders Act that regulates money-lending activities in approved places of business.
The Women’s Charter was also amended last year to extend powers to ensnare syndicates operating online vice sites from overseas.
Mr Lim further noted that shutting down any site outside of Singapore can be a “long and tedious task”. He said “there are many laws in other countries that do not allow you to shut down sites for a variety of reasons, including exercising their constitutionally protected rights”, adding that hosts may even mount a legal challenge.
“Shutting them down may not be so simple,” said Mr Lim.
Full article can be found here.
Source: The Straits Times
Author: Cara Wong