Tracking Data Privacy & Data Protection

By Roger Santos

With the massive involvement of technology in recent years, and even more today, data and other sources of information are more at risk during this time of pandemic. It is extremely important for companies to take extra steps to mitigate cybercrimes and other violations of data protection and data privacy.

Last September 8, 2020, I attended a webinar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) of the Philippines entitled “COVID-19: Tracking Data Privacy & Data Protection.” Invited as speaker was Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro, a seasoned ICT convergence and communications and public administration professional.

Mr. Liboro formerly served as the assistant secretary of the Department of Science and Technology for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction and was concurrently the OIC of the Science and Technology Information Institute, the country’s leading science and technology institute.

Having been appointed as the country’s first privacy commissioner in March 2016, he fast tracked data protection policy development in the country, with the issuance of the Data Privacy Act’s Implementing Rules and significant policy circulars within the first year of NPC’s establishment — effectively working for the country’s data privacy and protection rules to be at par with global data protection regulations.

In relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the commissioner is discouraging the collection of signatures and other unnecessary personal information for contact-tracing forms and has called for businesses to work toward complying with data privacy standards. He reminded data protection officers (DPOs) of their ever-evolving duties in a fast-changing landscape, highlighting the need to update their privacy notice and manual, and redo a privacy impact assessment against the backdrop of the health crisis. Detailed information on the relevant personal data flows must be provided. Privacy notices must also specify the parties and authorities to whom the data will be disclosed to or shared with and for what purposes.

Now that a lot of companies have digitally transformed their processes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift has created associated privacy risks, which have resulted to misuse, “missed” use, and abuse of data due to the increase of online activities. He reminded companies to be careful in asking for personal information from online transactions as this will increase privacy risks.

Please visit and join the John Clements Talent Community.

About the author:

Roger is a family man, who loves to cook and play with his son. He spends most of his free time watching movies, especially the ones included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Roger loves to sing and, when he’s happy, he sings his heart out, without minding the people around him.