With the advent of digital age, data privacy has been a big issue and concern for so many people and companies. Thus, the protection of vital information of an individual becomes a major issue in the operational agenda of most local companies, according to the Chairman of National Privacy Commission (NPC).
“Since the Commission was organized under my tutelage, our industry observers would agree that a lot of positive things have happened as far as data privacy awareness and compliance in the Philippines are concerned,” NPC Chairman Raymond Liboro said during the Data Privacy Asia during the media launch held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel on Friday.
Many businesses now realize and recognize the importance of data protection. Needless to say, we can safely assume that some have started to demonstrate a maturity level to adhere with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Liboro further said that,last week there were about 22,816 data protection officers who have registered with the NPC. Also about 2,939 personal information controllers and personal information processors have completed listing their organization’s data processing systems. The NPC has also received a total of 1,736 Annual Security Incident Report submissions.
Just last year, the Commission received at least five inquiries per month which is a reflection of strong public awareness. The NPC has processed a total of 657 complaint-related inquiries, breach notifications, and formal complaints, most of which were from 2018. This includes concerns brought before the NPC, Commission-initiated investigations and formal complaints. Of the totality, 443 have been resolved.
“What we’ve really done in the past two years is basically raise the state of awareness of our stakeholders,”Liboro said.
Two of the fast-food companies Jollibee and Wendy’s have taken the steps as exemplary enterprises that prioritize the protection of their customers’ vital information, NPC Chairman said.
The National Privacy Commission has issued compliance orders to both firms, following the hacking incidence that involved their web sites. The former reported a data breach in December 2017, while the latter notified on April 23 that its portal was compromised, and the personal data of its users were gathered illegally and published on the Web.
On May 8 the Commission ordered an indefinite suspension of Jollibee’s online delivery platform so it could enforce ways to avert potential risks of violation of privacy. “Jollibee is on the road to compliance; they just had a discussion with the investigation and technical team,” he added.
Liboro also said that there were several cases on Facebook (FB) probe for privacy infringement that were brought to the NPC which they will decide on its final ruling prior to the end of the third quarter of this year. The personal information of more than 87 million users of the social network worldwide were breached involving London-based Cambridge Analytics.
The Philippines came in second in terms of the number of Facebook users affected, with a total of 1,175,312, next to the United States.