Ministerial statement: Josephine Teo on responsible use of NRIC numbers

The Government understands the public's concerns about NRIC numbers and it was not its intention to make the full NRIC numbers widely disclosed, said Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo. In a ministerial statement in Parliament on Wednesday (Jan 8), she stressed that NRIC numbers are personal data and can be collected and used only when there is a need to. Organisations that hold your NRIC number also have a duty of care, and must notify and seek consent on its use, she added. Mrs Teo said these are existing guidelines that will not change but what needs to change are the incorrect uses of the NRIC number, including using it for authentication or as password. “It is better to make these changes while the problem is relatively contained,” she said. Mrs Teo urged organisations and individuals to stop using NRIC numbers as authenticators or passwords. “By taking action as soon as possible, we can increase protection for all of us. This will allow us to more confidently use the full NRIC number as a unique identifier whenever we need to do so,” she said.