MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Wednesday said it found 65 stores inside a mall in Parañaque that were not registered with them or had other violations, prompting them to issue notices to these shops, kiosks, and booths which process personal information.
The NPC said it held its first-ever compliance sweep at the mall as part of its assessment of the compliance of these establishments with the requirements under the Data Privacy Act (DPA).
“Malls and retail stores collect significant amounts of personal data from customers daily. Hence, these entities must comply with the DPA and NPC issuances to protect the rights of their data subjects and maintain consumer trust,” Privacy Commissioner John Henry Naga said in a statement.
On-the-spot privacy sweep
“This on-the-spot privacy sweep and compliance check would also serve as a warning to all non-compliant and erring (personal information controllers) and (personal information processors) that the NPC will not hesitate to impose administrative fines,” he added.
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The NPC chief said fines on erring establishments can range from P20,000 to P5 million.
During the sweep, the NPC found 38 others that were registered and another nine registered but had other violations.
Naga said they would continue to do more of these sweeps in the future.
“We remind these establishments that collect the personal data of their clients and their employees to register to the NPC at the soonest possible time to prevent penalties that we will implement starting this month,” said NPC director for data security and compliance office Aubin Arn Nieva.
Further, Naga advised the public not to provide their personal data to establishments that have not registered with them and to report these to them.