PDPA 2010 Compliance Checklist for Malaysian Websites

If your website collects personal data from Malaysian citizens—even just a name and email in a contact form—you are legally bound by the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA). Non-compliance carries severe fines.

The 7 Data Protection Principles

At the core of PDPA compliance are seven principles you must implement technically:

1. General Principle: Only process data with consent and for lawful purposes.
2. Notice and Choice: You must inform users what data is collected and how it is used.
3. Disclosure: Never share data with third parties without explicit consent.
4. Security: Implement technical measures to protect data from theft.
5. Retention: Do not keep data longer than necessary.
6. Data Integrity: Keep accurate and up-to-date records.
7. Access: Users must be able to request access to or correction of their data.

Dual-Language Privacy Notice

Section 7 of the PDPA requires that your Privacy Notice be available in both Bahasa Malaysia and English. Your website's footer must contain links to these policies. If you are collecting leads for marketing, the consent checkbox must not be pre-ticked.

Data Retention and Deletion Protocols

Your database cannot be a graveyard of old customer data. Implement automated cron jobs to purge data that is no longer legally required to be kept. For example, in a Laravel or Node.js environment, schedule a task to anonymize or delete inactive user records older than 7 years (aligning with tax record requirements).

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