Privacy body to summon Ms. Earth pageant organizers

MANILA, Philippines — Organizers of the Ms. Earth beauty pageant will be summoned to a probe on the complaints of some candidates of alleged violation of their data privacy.

The candidates said their phone numbers were given away by the pageant organizers without their permission.

The summonses will be sent to officials of Carousel Productions Inc., organizer of the event, according to National Privacy Commission (NPC) chief Raymund Liboro.

“This controversy calls attention to the need for organizations that hold beauty pageants to have data controllers who will protect the personal and private data of the subjects, in this case, the candidates in the beauty contest,” Liboro told The STAR yesterday.

Liboro said that pageant organizers possess substantial personal data of the candidates and that they should ensure that these are protected.

He said the NPC probe would be separate from any investigation to be done on the other complaints aired by some of the contestants.