By EDD K. USMAN
Twitter: @edd1819, Instagram: @bluestar0910, Facebook: SDN — Science, Digital & Current Affairs
(SDN) — FULL cooperation.
Grab Philippines, Inc. on Thursday, February 6, assured its full cooperation with the government in the wake of the actions the National Privacy Commission (NPC) has taken.
The company said it will fully cooperate with the NPC concerning documents the government agency may need.
Grab has taken a hit from the NPC under Com. Raymund E. Liboro, questioning the former’s implementation of its selfie identification, audio and video recording systems.
Obviously after a recent meeting with the company’s executives, the Privacy Commission issued a Cease and Desist Order (CDO) to Grab Philippines which effectively suspended the new features’ implementation.
In a statement sent to SDN — Science and Digital News, the ride-hailing company described the new functions as “pilot” and a “pioneering safety technology features.”
Related story: Gov’t Hits Grab, Suspends Selfie Verification, AV Recording Systems
Grab Philippines is headed by Brian Cu, the country head elevated as president.
Liboro’s agency is concerned about the gathering of data from passengers of the ride-hailing firm.
Grab said the features were designed to step up its ride-hailing community. On the other other, the company agreed to suspend temporarily the features.
It added that mutual understanding of the features is important.
The NPC asserted that in carrying out the three new features, “Grab PH did not sufficiently identify the risks posed by the data processing systems to the rights and freedoms of data subjects…only the risks faced by the company were taken into account” in the company’s Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).
Liboro’s agency gave Grab 15 days for it to comply with the remedial measures which the NPC mentioned in its Notice of Deficiencies it issued to Grab on January 31, 2020, after finding what it called “deficiencies in complying with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA) for three personal data processing systems, which may endanger the privacy rights of the riding public.”
Here’s the Grab statement in full:
“However, we recognize the mandate of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to protect user privacy. Passenger selfie feature and audio and video recording pilot have been temporarily suspended as we work with NPC to address their concerns.
“We will fully cooperate with NPC in providing necessary supporting documents to adhere to their standards, implement additional corrective measures, and ensure that NPCs expectations and our approach for safety are mutually understood. ”
Meanwhile, the NPC emphasized that it believes in the security of both the passengers and drivers as “primordial concern” without disregarding their privacy right.
It reiterated its power to issue a CDO as provided explicitly in the DPA’s Section 7 and repeated in Section 9 of the law’s Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). (SDN)