Jakarta, July 24 -- The Presidential Communication Office (PCO) clarified that the personal data transfer arrangement in the Indonesia-United States trade deal will be restricted to select commodity and service exchanges for commercial purposes.

"It is for commercial purposes only; it is not for handing over our data to be managed by other parties, nor do we get to manage other parties' data," PCO Head Hasan Nasbi stated at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday.

According to Nasbi, cross-border data transfer is necessary for select commodities, such as palm-based glycerin material, which can be used either for beneficial purposes, for instance, as fertilizer, or harmful purposes, such as making bombs.

"In this case, we need data opennes...