Data privacy, cybersecurity key to BPO competitiveness

MANILA, Philippines -  The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, one of the country’s major economic drivers, should step up data privacy and cyber security measures to sustain its global prominence, a ranking tech security official said.

National Privacy Commission (NPC) chairman Raymond Liboro said the BPO industry is among the high-risk sectors in terms of data breaches and cyber security threats.

Liboro said it is crucial for the industry to adopt and strengthen measures to ensure the Philippine BPO sector remains ahead and more attractive than its global counterparts.

“Privacy is fast becoming the biggest differentiator now in businesses worldwide. We’re not only protecting individuals, we’re also protecting industries whose main business is basically processing data. We have a lot at stake here,” he said.

“The (BPO) industry recognizes that. They know that this is crucial in today’s business environment, trust is becoming a big factor and privacy is equated to trust. It’s not anymore just about English speaking proficiency and the empathy of Filipinos in this industry. Now it is also about the data privacy culture and data privacy measures. Companies are now taking that into consideration,” Liboro added.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said data showed 3.4 billion records have been stolen on a global scale just in the first quarter alone as compared to one billion in 2013.

CCAP, for its part, said the BPO industry is taking serious steps to ensure compliance with regard to cyber security and data privacy regulations.

CCAP president Jojo Uligan said the objective is for the Philippines to be “best-in-class” when it comes to implementing guidelines and proactively advancing means to uphold data protection and privacy since BPO workers hold and process millions of data as a way of life.

“Part of the objective is to communicate the trends and the threat landscape on cybersecurity when processing millions of data, and to establish the Philippines as a country with advanced data protection and privacy regulations to address these threats, ultimately to make the world entrust their business data with us,” Uligan said.

CCAP said it is working closely with the NPC to support, align and roll out programs relevant to the industry.

The group is also organizing one of the biggest data privacy summits in Asia, called the Data Privacy Asia 2017, which will take place next month.

“The summit will focus on understanding what it means now and what should be done to secure the future by bringing in the global perspectives of international experts to our country to discuss best practices and collaborate with each other in order to find the most creative solutions to evolving data protection and cybersecurity-related issues,” Uligan said.