"Not mandatory" but only taking a photo of a CCCD can be authenticated
On October 13, to clarify information about the vHandicap application being reported for abusing personal information collection, Lao Dong Newspaper reporters had an interview with Mr. Tran Duy Canh - Vice President of the Vietnam Golf Association (in charge of vHandicap).
Mr. Canh said that a citizen identification card (CCCD) is the property of an individual. When participating in social networks or using any service, the right to decide is given or not given by the individual, not whether social networks are allowed or not.
This person affirmed that vHandicap does not require identity verification with a CCCD: "The individual has the right to provide or refuse. vHandicap is not required to do that. Whoever provides that will be given a green ticket. Otherwise, it is still used normally. If you want to be upgraded higher, more proficient, more proficient, then do it."
Answering Lao Dong reporter's question about whether vHandicap is licensed for social networks. According to Decree No. 147/2024/ND-CP, people only have to authenticate their accounts using their own mobile phone number in Vietnam, however, currently vHandicap requires authentication by taking a photo of their CCCD, Mr. Tran Duy Canh said: "I told you that the owner's phone number has hundreds of numbers. If you can give me a phone number, you can give me 10 phone numbers. But the ID card is only 1.
And the current measure to combat fraud is that 1 person has many different handicaps. There are 5 handicaps, some handicaps do this job, some handicaps do that job, it is very cheating. That is just a measure to fight fraud".
Thus, it can be seen that "it is not mandatory" but the only way VHandicap offers to authenticate identity is still just to take photos of personal documents, which is no different from mandatory for users.
Mr. Canh's answer also conflicts with the requirements for identity authentication in the vHandicap application: "You need to authenticate your identity to be granted a handicap certificate from the Vietnam Golf Association".
But Mr. Canh said: "Not a certificate, but an identification code is issued, that code is only one and will be very prestigious in the community. Identification codes provide many benefits".
These responses show a big difference between the non-identification person and the person who provides the information for authentication.
People need to be careful when sharing personal information
The agreement on providing personal information issued by vHandicap states that personal data will be stored by vHandicap and appropriate security measures will be applied. Within the legal framework, vHandicap can store personal data in Vietnam or abroad, including storage solutions on cloud computers.
It should be noted that the Law on Personal Data Protection, effective from the beginning of 2026, requires organizations and individuals providing social networking services not to be required to provide images or videos containing complete or partial content of personal documents as a factor for account authentication.
A worrying reality is that according to information from the Ministry of Public Security, the situation of personal data disclosure is common in cyberspace. Users are not aware of protecting personal data, posting publicly or disclosing it during the process of transferring, storing, exchanging for business operations or due to inappropriate protection measures, leading to being appropriated and posted publicly.
Many personal data are being advertised for sale publicly, for a long time, in large quantities on the internet. The buying and selling was conducted through websites, accounts, pages, groups on social networks, and blogger forums. Payment is made through bank accounts, many transactions clearly state the content of data trading.
The purchase and sale of personal data does not only take place individually, between individuals, but also involves the participation of companies, organizations, and businesses.
Recently, the Ministry of Public Security has discovered hundreds of individuals and organizations related to the sale of personal data. A number of large-scale data extortion and trading rings in Vietnam have been discovered, fought and handled. The amount of personal data illegally collected and traded has been discovered to be up to thousands of GB of data, including many internal and sensitive personal data.
The story of vHandicap, a platform licensed for social networks but requiring photos of personal documents to authenticate accounts, is a typical example for people to be cautious and consider carefully before posting any personal information on cyberspace.
