News

CPF Revealed At-Risk Woman’s Identity Online To ‘Convey Verifiable Facts’

2019-12-29 , 12:00 pm

Remember Ramesh? He was a man who verbally abused a security guard at his condo, and a few days later, the whole of Singapore knew everything about him, including his name, his salary, and even how often he pooped every day.

The internet is certainly a scary place where netizens can disparage and degrade you as long as they know your details.

That’s why doxxing is illegal, because we don’t want our personal information published online without our consent. But what if the authorities do it?

CPF Revealed At-Risk Woman’s Identity in Public to ‘Convey Verifiable Facts’

The identity of a suicidal 45-year-old Singaporean woman was publicly revealed by the Singapore authorities recently.

In a Facebook post, CPF issued a joint statement with the Housing & Development Board, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social and Family Development.

In the statement, the CPF board published personal information about the woman, including her name, her medical history, and even the fact that her daughter is pursuing a diploma at Singapore Polytechnic.

But why would they do such a thing?

Attempted suicide to get CPF lump sum

According to Mothership, the woman claimed that she attempted suicide multiple times just so her family would be able to retrieve her Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies in her account as a lump sum if she succeeded.

The issue was first reported on by Shin Min Daily News on 5 December.

The Online Citizen also reported the issue, referring to the woman as Ms Soo and stating that she had a request to release funds from her CPF Special Account rejected by the CPF board.

So what happened to the woman?

The woman first sought treatment in 2011 for suspected lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body.

There is no cure for the disease.

In one of TOC’s articles about the matter, the woman claimed that she had used up all her savings as she was unemployed for three years, and had even written to President Halimah Yacob for help.

As previously mentioned, she also said that she requested the release of her CPF funds from her Medisave and Special Accounts that amounted to S$100,000, but was rejected.

She also said that she has to pay a monthly mortgage of around S$900 for her four-room HDB flat.

CPF’s response

In their Facebook post, CPF claims that when the woman had gone to the hospital for lupus, she rejected medical advice and insisted on being discharged after being informed that further investigations were necessary for a proper diagnosis.

They also said that when the woman visited Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), a medical social worker informed her that all her medical expenses would be covered by MediFund.

They added that her appeal to withdraw her CPF on medical grounds will be re-assessed once her doctor is able to certify that she meets the medical criteria.

As for her monthly mortgage, the statement said: “HDB has been advising her on options to manage her housing instalments”.

Woman responded

Many, understandably, felt that the authorities had violated the privacy of an at-risk woman by publishing her personal information online.

Even the woman in question responded to CPF’s post, saying it was “public shaming”.

She said she wants to sue CPFB for making “false allegations” against her, and appealed for a lawyer who would be willing to work on her case “pro-bono”.

Smart Nation Statment

But, as with any Internet feud, the responses to the responses never seem to end. Smart Nation and Digital Government Office released a statement on Facebook on Friday (27 December), justifying the publication of the woman’s personal information.

They said that the release of personal details was “necessary to provide the public with correct and relevant facts”.

They also claim that TOC’s articles had omitted key facts and contained misleading statements.

The statement said that the disclosure of personal information was done to “convey verifiable facts” and to enable the woman to challenge the Government’s account of the case, if she wants to.

They also wanted people not to confuse this with “unauthorised breaches of citizens’ data”, like Sephora’s email data breach, for example.

Because this was done intentionally?

However, at no point did the statement address the concerns that the public disclosure of her identity could have negatively impacted the at-risk woman.

Might attempt suicide again

The woman also told TOC that she is willing to give up her citizenship if that is what it takes to retrieve her CPF account.

“Either that or I will have to commit suicide again so that my family can get my funds under such circumstances.”