Soon, You Won’t Need Your NRIC to Redeem Free Stuff or Join a Lucky Draw

By
Venkataraman Gunasellan
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Getting your IC is one of the milestones that every Singaporean will remember—from getting your picture taken to finally holding the pink card in your hands.

We all know how valuable our IC is.

If we lost it, we are pretty much vulnerable to identity theft and whatnots because the person would have access to valuable information like our address and NRIC number.

And with the number of scams rising, you can never be too sure. We even collaborated with SPF to warn our readers about scammers.

Soon you won’t need to provide your NRIC number

You know how sometimes we provide our NRIC number to participate in some random lucky draw in hopes to strike jackpot (but instead we are bombarded with spam emails)?

Or to redeem free parking in a mall (after spending like hundreds of dollars lah, of course)?

According to The Straits Times, it will soon be illegal for mall operators to collect and use shopper’s NRIC numbers to track parking redemptions, manage their membership accounts and conduct lucky draws under the newly proposed rules by the Personal Data Protection Commission.

This applies to cinema operators and rental firms as well.

Just so you know, we sometimes work with brands to conduct giveaways and are often requested to get the winners’ NRIC number, too (though we don’t know why).

Is it possible?

As a consumer, it might seem like it is a good thing on the surface but it might actually be more troublesome for us.

Bicycle rental shop, Coastline Leisure told TODAY that it has stopped collecting NRICs as collateral but they are still required to scan their identity cards in the story to verify their details.

The general manager of the said rental shop, Adrian Koh said that they can consider other forms of verification but it needs to work as there might be cases of theft or abandoned bikes.

I am sure that the new rules are meant well but I can understand how the shops might suffer.

Cinema operators told Today that NRICs are still needed to verify the ages of their customers for movies with an age limit such as M18 and R21.

Now, that’s very legit.

Companies will have a year to change their practices so that it abides by the new rules.

What do you think?

Personally I am for it cause I am so absent-minded. Just this year alone, I have lost 3 EZ-Link cards!

Don’t think that you have no say in this.

You can voice out your opinion on these proposed rules by December 18 over here.

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Venkataraman Gunasellan
Email: [email protected]