As Australians continue their Bali travel en masse, a glitch in Indonesia’s electronic visa system has been revealed, potentially exposing some Aussie travellers’ passport details to strangers.
While the bug remains unresolved, Indonesia’s immigration authority has known about the issue for some time, the ABC reported.
According to the broadcaster, three Australians who recently travelled to Bali experienced a problem when they scanned the QR code on their visa documents, revealing sensitive details of other travellers.
Melbourne’s Lauren Levin saw names, birth dates, passport numbers and photos of strangers on her phone.
“I could see the visa data of two other Australians, and presumably they could see my private data too,” she said.
“We seem to have been allocated the same document number.”
Similar issues occurred with other Australians, revealing details of visitors from India and China.
“When I spoke to an immigration supervisor at the airport [in Bali], he said this had been going on for a while and ‘everyone was impacted, not just me’,” Levin said.
“With the risk of identity theft, I’m worried that my data and that of other Australians has been compromised.”
Indonesia’s Immigration department said they are working to fix the issue.
“We are aware of this problem, but we have tens of thousands of visa-on-arrival applications every day,” a spokesperson from Indonesia’s immigration department in Jakarta told the ABC.
“Some anomalies like this have happened before, but it doesn’t mean we are normalising it, we continue to learn from problems to improve the system.”
The Australian embassy in Jakarta was informed of a potential data breach in late September and has been in contact with Indonesia’s immigration authorities. It’s unclear how many visitors are affected, but over 1 million Australians visit Indonesia annually.
Harder line on entry & stays
Indonesia’s Department of Immigration recently announced it would take a tougher stance on visa violations, with significant penalties for tourists who overstay or fail to meet visa requirements.
Crimes that once warranted a maximum sentence of one year could now lead to up to 20 years in prison or even a life sentence.
It was also recently revealed that Bali would be stepping up immigration checks for visitors as tourism – and deportations – continued to surge in the province.
“This aims to maintain security, order, and comfort for the entire community, including tourists,” Bali Regional Office for Law and Human Rights Head, Pramella Yunidar Pasaribu, stated.
Pasaribu said that checks on foreign nationals have intensified, with closer inspections of passports, visas and residence permits.
Indonesia also introduced a new tourist tax for Bali travellers in February this year.
DFAT continues to advise Aussies to “Exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia overall due to security risks”.
