The National Privacy Commission (NPC) found Smart Communication Inc., Globe Telecom, and Dito Telecommunity Corp., have demonstrated capabilities in protecting the personal data of their clients as they roll out the registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.
At a Compliance Check On-Site visit by the NPC, the three telcos were appraised of some gaps in their personal data privacy implementation and were required to submit proof of compliance within 15 days.
The NPC did not provide details.1
NPC in a statement said it has conducted an on-site visit at three local telcos offices to ensure they are implementing appropriate security measures to protect the personal data of Filipinos registering their SIM cards.
Privacy commissioner John Henry Naga together with the chief of NPC’s compliance and monitoring division, Rainier Anthony Milanes, personally went to each on-site visit to oversee the activities and discuss the importance of the compliance check with the data protection team of each telco.
“Telcos must take their responsibility of protecting the privacy rights of their subscribers seriously by ensuring that personal data related to SIM registration are properly collected and stored, access to the data is restricted by role-based access controls, and data servers are protected by encryption and layers of firewall,” Naga said.
Naga maintained telcos should ensure their security measures are further improved and strengthened as information and communications technology advances.
The SIM Registration Act was implemented on Dec. 27, 2022.
It can be recalled that the NPC gathered the telcos to urgently address the privacy concerns regarding the implementation of the SIM registration which led to immediate changes to the telcos’ SIM registration process on their websites and mobile applications.
As of January 11, the Department of Information and Communications reported that SIM registration has been completed for 10.5 percent of the 169 million subscribers nationwide, with 17.7 million registered as of.
Of the total registered SIM, Smart has 8.4 million, Globe has 7.8 million and, Dito reported 1.6 million.
“We want to remind the public to register early because all unregistered SIMs will be deactivated once the registration period ends on April 26, 2023. We are also working on the rollout of SIM registration for geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas so that we can finish all registration within the said period,” said Anna Mae Lamentillo DICT undersecretary said.
