Senate Bill 2965 or the Data Privacy Act of 2011 approved by Senate

Data Privacy bill was approved by Senate . Business World Online reports “Prison terms and fines of up to six years and P5 million, respectively, will be imposed on those who access and disclose the data without authorization. Use for journalistic, artistic, research and law enforcement purposes will be allowed.

The bill also creates the National Privacy Commission as the “implementing arm to enforce the regulations, receive complaints and institute investigations” concerning data privacy.

The agency, to be attached to the Office of the President and run by a commissioner with two deputies, will get an initial budget of P20 million.”

If implemented properly, it will protect the personal information of individuals from being used by personal data controllers and by government if unauthorized. Most of all spam text messages and calls will be discouraged. Credit card companies are mostly the ones I encounter who sell our data information for marketing purposes, without our permission. I also notice the visits in my home from the City government personnel selling fire extinguishers (address given when applying for business permit and fire permit was given). Some hard sell companies (real estate, network marketing) pretend to have raffle gimmick to solicit information and also “surprise” you when you win only to be fooled to attend a selling session.

The National Privacy Commission seems to have no powers of enforcement. Will they have an enforcement arm? My main concern is really enforcement. Reporting offenders? This needs to be discussed more since the good points of this bill will just go down the drain if not implemented well.

Here is the bill:

Senate Bill (SB) 2965 or the Data Privacy Act of 2011