Privacy body probes LTO data breach

MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is investigating a website providing a motor vehicle authenticator to determine possible breach of personal information of motorists registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

The NPC said it is conducting a probe of lisensya.info, which has associated itself with the LTO and used the agency’s logo.

The NPC said some netizens claimed that the data provided by website were accurate, raising suspicions of a leak in the LTO’s database.

Last year, a total of 12.725 million vehicles were registered with the LTO.

Last week, the LTO said the website was not operated or connected with the agency.

LTO’s website lto.net.ph, which provides the status of the availability of license plates, is currently unavailable, while lisensya.info is accessible as of press time.

Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro said they would verify the incident and look into the extent of possible harm on the LTO’s data.

Liboro said the website would be taken down today.

He urged the public not to disclose their personal information to the website.