Every time a seemingly large portion of the public in Singapore is widely and vocally upset by something, it usually indicates that they have no idea what they are talking about – and it's no different in the case of NRIC numbers being publicly searchable on ACRA's Bizfile site.
The funniest part, however, is that those who are truly upset about it are either complete dimwits or, more likely, people who are completely unaffected by it.
This is because all of the private data has ALWAYS been available on the ACRA site and anybody who has ever registered a company in Singapore would surely have known that.
Now, if you had a business in SG and weren't aware then, I'm sorry to say, you fall into the "complete dimwit" category – though I suspect it's a minority compared to those who have never been registered in Bizfile and, therefore, their information cannot be found there.
The only difference between then and now is that prior to the changes you had to pay a whopping S$5.50 fee to get a full business profile summary from Bizfile. That's all.
For years it has been possible to find the names, IC numbers and addresses of some of the richest business owners in Singapore and nobody made a peep about it.
Now a bunch of ignorants have read a post on social media and are having a meltdown (even though it doesn't even apply to them).
Everybody who made noise about it – including Bertha Henson, who keeps showing that she is incapable of learning anything from her own mistakes – should apologise and go back to the cave they crawled out of.
Nobody cares about your IC, not least because you're likely not worth stealing from anyway.
Meanwhile most of the people who could be genuine targets have been quite content with their information being available on the internet for ages, because it's not enough to rip them off – while it is required to ensure that no shady characters hide behind company registration in Singapore.
If anything, the requirement to publish residential addresses was more questionable, as it could compromise privacy and allow harassers to literally walk up to your door. But that part has actually been recently fixed by ACRA, which a few weeks ago announced it would allow listing of an alternative address that you can receive mail at, instead of your primary residence.
And yet, in a typically bizarre twist (given the corrupting power of social media), instead of being praised for improving privacy protections, the agency is chastised for something that has been its regular practice forever.
All triggered by someone who tries to call herself a "journalist".
