The holding of the third cycle of the Philippines’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) that took place on May 8, 2017 was notable for the FMA. Last year, FMA submitted two reports – one with Privacy International highlighting privacy rights in the country, and the other with the Association for Progressive Communications Read more…
In March 2016, the Philippines took global headlines by storm when the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) website was breached and several voters’ databases were leaked online. The breach, popularly referred to as COMELeak, is now known to be one of the biggest government-related breaches in world history as it involved Read more…
Last week was a busy one for the newly established Department of Information and Communications Technology, as two of its attached agencies organized the first National Data Privacy Summit and the Cybersecurity Summit separately. The National Privacy Commission convened the first ever national data privacy summit on December 5-6, 2016 at Read more…
Last March 2016, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) fell victim to what is now known as one of the biggest government-related breaches in history. This hack on the COMELEC database leaked the personal information of approximately 55 million registered Filipino voters. The incident soon caused widespread concern and public outrage, prompting FMA Read more…
[PRESS RELEASE] The Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act (DPA) of 2012 was officially submitted to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) for publication on the Official Gazette by the National Privacy Commission (NPC) after several months of public consultations nationwide with various stakeholders. The IRR will officially take effect fifteen Read more…
Photo from the Cebu consultation on the DPA IRR courtesy of: HealthInformatics, Inc. The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has submitted for publication the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act No. 10173, or the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Download a copy of the final version promulgated on 24 Read more…
After being appointed in March this year, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) held several rounds of public consultations on the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 10173, or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA). Following a successful, albeit brief consultation during a Philippine Computer Society meeting on June Read more…
With a history immersed in years of colonialism and tainted by martial law, Philippine society is no stranger to surveillance. Even now, tales of past regimes tracking their citizens’ every move find their way into people’s everyday conversations. This, for the most part, has kept Filipinos vigilant over their hard-earned Read more…
COMMUNICATIONS LANDSCAPE The Philippines has a total population of over 100 million people[1] and was estimated to reach 101.6 million in 2015. The country had a national internet penetration figure of around 40 % in 2014.[2] Overall, 45 million people are active Internet users,[3] while 32 million are active mobile internet users.[4] The country ranks first Read more…
Introduction Social media[1] serves as the Internet to majority of Filipino online users. Over 80% of the Philippine Internet population uses social media. In Universal McCann’s 2008 Wave 3 study on social media, the Philippines has the highest penetration of social networking among Internet users at 83%, compared with the Read more…