ABSTRACT PROTECTION OF PRIVACY AND THE PERSONAL DATA IN PANDEMIC ERA: COMPARATIVE APPROACH BETWEEN INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA Mohamad Afifudin 40.2019.3.1.2.034 Indonesia currently has many regulations regarding personal data protection but attached to several laws. However, the regulations that only regulate the protection of privacy and personal data are still in the form of a draft law. The comparison in this research is made because Malaysia is one of the Indonesia’s neighboring countries which already has regulations regarding the protection of privacy and personal data with different legal system from Indonesia. And with this research, it also can be seen how the form of regulations that apply in a country that has different legal system and can be considered by other countries that are still in the stage of formulating regulations about privacy and data protection, especially when going through the covid-19 pandemic, where almost all activities and work are carried out through cyberspace network All with these problems, then the purpose of this research is to add and increase insight into new scientific though and treasures regarding forms of privacy and personal data protection in the Covid 19 pandemic era in Indonesia and Malaysia and also the similarities and differences between these two countries. This research uses qualitative method with juridical normative approach and comparative analysis. To collect the data, the researcher used a method of documentation. Then the data were analyzed with deductive method to get the result of the discussion about the form of protection for privacy and personal data in the era of the Covid 19 pandemic in Indonesia and Malaysia. Furthermore, the researcher used descriptive method to analyze and explain the result. At the end, comparative method was used to analyze the relationship, similarities and differences of legal protection in two countries. At the end of this study, the results can be concluded that legal certainty for data protection in Indonesia has not yet been regulated and legislated. However, there are a number of laws governing data protection issues. And several articles provide protection, including mentioning privacy as well. In contrast to the legal certainty regulated in Malaysia at this time, which is regulated by the Personal Data Protection Act no. 709 of 2010 (PDPA Malaysia). In addition, this research also provides several recommendations to the government to pass the Personal Data Protection Bill (RUU PDP) into law. Because of that it is very important to protect data in Indonesia to avoid the threat of cyber crime. In addition, this study suggests to future researchers to complete this research by combining the concepts of absolute personal data protection and individual privacy to protect their privacy in the future. Keywords: Protection, Privacy, Personal data