Leading mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) will bring to the table its expertise and knowledge on global best practices as it continues to work with government to ensure consumer protection through measures like the SIM card registration bill.
This comes after the President’s recent veto of the measure and reports of the Senate President’s announcement of his plan to use Congress’ power to override the veto.
“Smart has long been in the forefront of consumer online protection and has been actively pushing programs toward this pursuit. This includes initiatives that keep our customers safe from scams and fraud, activities that uphold the highest standards of data privacy, and programs that promote safe online spaces for all, especially for children,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT Inc and Smart Communications President and CEO.
“More than supporting the legislative process, we at Smart are also willing to share our own experiences, as well as our knowledge on the best global practices, to contribute to the success of the SIM card registration bill, if and when it is passed into law. We also welcome any opportunity to support the government in developing the bill’s implementing rules and regulations,” Panlilio added.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of PLDT’s tower deal announcement, PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan reiterated the company’s support for the measure. “We still are hoping that we will find a way to get the SIM cards registered. That’s important, not only for our business, but for Filipinos in general.”
PLDT Chief Legal Counsel Marilyn V. Aquino also said: “Before the veto, we were planning to work with regulators, and we were looking for best practices abroad, including rules and regulations that were adopted and how they were applied, including challenges encountered and mistakes that can be avoided. The plan is to work with regulators so that we can share information on what has happened as well as what is happening in other countries so that we don’t make the same mistakes. That was the plan before the veto happened, and we will continue to do that.”
Smart and parent company PLDT have been active in collaborating with government and regulators for consumer protection. Through its Cybersecurity Operations Group, PLDT has invested billions to beef up its cybersecurity defenses, not only to protect its own infrastructure but mostly to help protect customers from cyberthreats and phishing and scamming activities. PLDT and Smart also regularly and actively campaign to inform and educate customers and help them identify red flags that indicate scams and fraud.
PLDT and Smart have also embraced their role in the fight against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) by rolling out relevant policies, technology solutions, and community programs that uphold the safety and welfare of children both online and offline. This includes investing in a pioneering Child Protection Platform and embedding it into the Group’s 24/7 cyber security operations. This solution allows the Group to detect, predict, respond, and prevent domain and content-level access to child sexual abuse materials. As of end March 2022, PLDT and Smart have already blocked an accumulation of more than 1 billion user access attempts and over 224,000 online content and web pages linked to OSAEC.
PLDT’s Data Privacy Office has also been taking the lead in holding Group-wide data privacy trainings to equip leaders and employees alike as data privacy champions for customers.