Lawmaker: Prioritize bill pushing better protection of personal data
Sunday, January 8, 2012
PASSING laws to protect data privacy should be made a priority, the chairman of the Senate committee on Science and Technology said.
Senator Edgardo Angara, who has filed a Data Privacy bill that penalizes the unauthorized use of personal information, said it "will require Filipino companies to adhere to international security standards in order to make the country’s information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry more secure and thus more attractive to foreign investors."
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He said there is a need to innovate security measures and enact laws that will help protect us in the digital world.
The bill proposes the creation of a National Privacy Commission that will monitor personal information controllers and processors – firms that handle personal data – to make sure they conform with "international standards set for data protection."
The commission will also handle complaints of unauthorized use of personal information. The bill makes firms accountable for information submitted to them by customers and users that are leaked, hacked, or shared with a third party without consent. Under the bill, firms have to inform users of who might have access to the data being submitted.