Philippines wins seat in international privacy body

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has secured a seat in the five-member executive committee of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC), two years after the country became a member of the premier global privacy body.

“Having a seat at the committee’s table to take part in addressing challenges that privacy regulators face is definitely a privilege,” National Privacy Commission Raymund Liboro said in a statement.

“Definitely, the Philippines, although young, has a lot to contribute too especially in assisting new members.” Liboro added.

The NPC became an ICDPPC member in October 2016.

The election was held last October 23 during a closed session meeting at the Palais D’ Egmont in Brussels, Belgium. Each member of the international conference’s executive committee has a term of two years.

Current members include the privacy authorities of Australia, Canada, Burkina Faso, and the United Kingdom which holds the chairmanship. The conference has two additional members, comprising of the next hosting authorities namely: Albania and  Mexico.

Last week, NPC ordered Facebook to submit a data breach notification report and provide identity theft and phishing insurance to the 755,973 affected users of the social networking site based in the Philippines.It has also previously acted on separate data breaches at the Commission on Elections, ride-hailing service Uber, and the websites of fastfood companies Jollibee and Wendy's Philippines. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral