www.myemail.my
username@myemail.my
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/161903
Recently the government of Malaysia had announced that a private sector Tricubes Sdn Bhd will be in charge of executing a project while provides emails to every Malaysians aged 18 and above. The project which is said to cost RM50mil up to the year 2020.
Many Malaysians cry outrage as initially it was assumed that the government will be funding the private sector project which many disagree to as most users already have their own email accounts (hotmail, google, yahoo, etc). People became more skeptical and began questioning motives when they found out the owner of Tricubes was family related to our current PM Najib and that the company was on the brink of being unlisted as a valid company in Malaysia.
One reason for this email is to link the government and citizens in a more secure manner by sending out government notifications, bills, information as the emails will be tied to the users' MyKad (Malaysia ID card). Even so, it is said that the emails will be a joint venture between Microsoft and Tricubes and that the email contents will be read. Information obtained from the email will then be used to display ads on the website/ while viewing your mail. Privacy and more secure? I don't think so...
Another issue I'm concerned about this is the privacy involved. With Tricubes holding our information as a private sector, they are also able to sell off our email addresses and information. Isn't the first time I experienced this as I believe my current university (ISU) does the same as I keep receiving unwanted spam mails (thank you gmail for filtering out everything). As a private sector I'm sure their goal is to increase profit (after their primary goal of avoiding getting delisted).
So assuming that by selling our information and emails addresses along with ads is their main source of revenue, they would need to get more people to use their service. As of now, the registration of the email is VOLUNTARILY. Since there are so many people right now who condones the idea, I doubt they will be able to get many subscribers. They'd have to figure a way to get people to register.
One way as probably intended by this project is to link tax paying or other electronic bill paying methods to this and ONLY this email account. You are no longer allowed to use any other emails for bill paying online. People will retaliate but knowing Malaysians, they'd probably just register for the email rather than waiting in line (at the tax paying/ bill paying stations).
So what if this doesn't work? They require more money since usually Malaysian projects are under budgeted (or over budgeted as some would like to believe) and require more cash? I believe this is where they'll receive government funding. A project of this national "importance" after being announced by our PM will definitely won't die away that easily... especially if the man whose company is in charge of this project is family related. They would want it to succeed so aside from the method above of obtaining revenue, I'm sure the government would provide funding and think of other methods to get people to use the email service. After all, it'll be an embarrassment/a loss to both parties should the project fails to achieve its goals. People will begin to doubt on these projects and there will be an outcry.
Right now on facebook, there is a page retaliating both this project and the 100floor 1Malaysia tower. Many are saying the money could be spent elsewhere such as providing internet for those in rural areas. Now if this project were to go down the drain... well, one can only imagine the result...
Update : It seems the email is based upon windows live....
I guess that's where Microsoft gets involved... I still don't see how it involves RM50mil~
Though Microsoft's service provides 25mb of space but myemail is said to provide users with 25GB instead. Typo maybe?
