The Role of Village Government in Ensuring Citizens' Personal Data Confidentiality in Digital Administrative Services

Village digitalization has become a policy priority in Indonesia to improve village governance, but it raises legal complexities regarding the management of residents’ personal data. This study examines the relationship between attributive village authority under Law Number 3 of 2024 concerning the Second Amendment to Law Number 6 of 2014 on Villages and personal data protection obligations under Law Number 27 of 2022. It addresses normative ambiguity concerning the limits of village authority and the lack of integrated legal construction between these regimes. Using a normative juridical method with statutory and conceptual approaches, this research analyzes the scope and boundaries of village authority in personal data management and its legal implications in the digitalization era. The findings show that such authority must be limited by core data protection principles, including lawfulness, purpose limitation, data minimization, and accountability, ensuring that local authority does not justify violations of constitutional rights. Key challenges include limited technical capacity and legal awareness among village officials, inadequate data security infrastructure, and weak local oversight mechanisms. The study highlights the need for regulatory harmonization, capacity building, improved infrastructure support, and participatory oversight to ensure accountable data governance.