(SDN) — IS it true that some political parties and candidates in the May 13, 2019 national election are exposing voters’ personal information?
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) headed by Commissioner Raymund E. Liboro is “currently looking into” some reports about this.
“Political parties and candidates, in their capacity as personal information controllers, should at all times uphold the data subject rights of voters, and provide mechanisms for exercising rights,” said Liboro.
In an email to SDN — Science and Digital News, the government’s guardian of citizens’ privacy said it learned “that some individuals posted on social media about receiving from candidate/s a ‘precinct locator’ or ‘voters’ information card.'”
Privacy Commissioner Raymund E. Liboro. (File photo)
The NPC said the card was printed a voter’s personal data, such as name, complete residential address, date of birth, and other information.
As a result there were concerns raised over the possibility that the concerned candidates (who were not named) could be processing voters’ personal data sans authority from data subjects.
Thus, the NPC “is currently looking into this to determine whether said election-related processing of personal data conforms with the standards of the Data Privacy Act (DPA) of 2012.”
It emphasized political parties and candidates’ responsibility to be careful with information they are holding.
“They have the obligation to ensure that all personal data processing related to any of their partisan political activity must satisfy the criteria for lawful processing as provided for in the DPA,” Liboro warned.
“Failure to uphold data subject rights in processing voter information may subject political parties and candidates to penalties for possible violations of the DPA.”
But it’s seems guarding personal data is a two-way subject.
The NPC called on the citizens to also be aware of their data privacy rights and not lower their guard whenever their personal data is processed.
Citizens may get in touch with the NPC (info@privacy.gov.ph) if they suspect that their data privacy rights were violated (complaints@privacygov.ph). (SDN)