The right to be informed

Under R.A. 10173, your personal data is treated almost literally in the same way as your own personal property.
Thus, it should never be collected, processed and stored by any organization without your explicit consent,
unless otherwise provided by law. Information controllers usually solicit your consent through a privacy notice.
Aside from protecting you against unfair means of personal data collection, this right also requires personal
information controllers (PICs) to notify you if your data have been compromised, in a timely manner.

As a data subject, you have the right to be informed that your personal data will be, are being, or were, collected
and processed.

The Right to be Informed is a most basic right as it empowers you as a data subject to consider other actions to
protect your data privacy and assert your other privacy rights.

Example:

A medical doctor in a private hospital in Manila recorded a conversation with his lady patient without the
patient’s knowledge and prior consent. Upon realizing what was happening, the patient immediately confronted
the doctor and expressed her strong dismay, pointing out the physician’s lack of professionalism in recognizing
his personal right to privacy. She said she could have given her consent anyway if only she was asked politely.
The doctor apologized and explained that his action was just meant to aid his recall, especially when he later
examined the case, saying he just wanted to provide the best possible service, which the patient deserves. The
patient, however, demanded the doctor to delete the recorded conversation and canceled on the medical
consultation. She said if the doctor does not even know the basic courtesy of asking for consent, then how can
he expect to win the patients’ confidence in his competence as a medical practitioner.

Take note of this:

To protect your privacy, the Philippine data privacy law explicitly require organizations to notify and furnish
you the following information before they enter your personal data into any processing system (or at the next
practical opportunity at least):

 Description of the personal data to be entered into the system

 Exact Purposes for which they will be processed (such as for direct marketing, statistical, scientific etc.)
 Basis for processing, especially when it is not based on your consent
 Scope and method of the personal data processing
 Recipients, to whom your data may be disclosed
 Methods used for automated access by the recipient, and its expected consequences for you as a data subject
 Identity and contact details of the personal information controller
 The duration for which your data will be kept
 You also have to be informed of the existence of your rights as a data subject.

Additional notes:

In recording a conversation or interview with someone, it is enough to verbally ask for a direct consent from an
individual data subject. If the subject yields, it would be useful to also mention as part of the recorded
conversation that the subject knows the conversation is being recorded and that you asked and were given the
consent. It would even be better if you could get the subject to verbally confirm his consent.
Banks involved in phone banking tell their callers that the conversation with their call center agent would be
recorded, and that proceeding with the call is indication of their consent. This practice is considered sufficient
notice.

Websites resort to publishing a Privacy Notice page, which essentially accomplishes the same thing. Similar
privacy notices should be made in public establishments equipped with security CCTVs.

Whenever anyone is making an audio or video recording of you, or even just taking your pictures, you have a
right to know, and you must always be given the chance to opt out when you don’t feel comfortable.

A salesman may be collecting detailed personal data about you and your family without your permission, under
the pretext of targeting you as a prospective customer to tailor-fit their offerings to your individual needs. This,
by itself, may be potentially beneficial to you. But since your personal privacy and safety becomes potentially at
risk, you have a right to be informed if you are being individually targeted in a sales campaign like this.

The right to access

This is your right to find out whether an organization holds any personal data about you and if so, gain
“reasonable access” to them. Through this right, you may also ask them to provide you with a written
description of the kind of information they have about you as well as their purpose/s for holding them.

Under the Data Privacy Act of 2012, you have a right to obtain from an organization a copy of any information
relating to you that they have on their computer database and/or manual filing system. It should be provided in
an easy-to-access format, accompanied with a full explanation executed in plain language.

You may demand to access the following:

 The contents of your personal data that were processed.

 The sources from which they were obtained.
 Names and addresses of the recipients of your data.
 Manner by which they were processed.
 Reasons for disclosure to recipients, if there were any.
 Information on automated systems where your data is or may be available, and how it may affect you.
 Date when your data was last accessed and modified
 The identity and address of the personal information controller.

Example:

An individual had been involved in an incident inside and outside a Manila restaurant where his wallet was
stolen. He also suffered minor injuries in the incident. He requested access to the restaurant CCTV footage
relating to himself, saying he wants to see all details surrounding the incident and possibly figure out a way to
recover his wallet. He tried to personally speak to the manager but was referred to the security guard. After a
few days of following up on his request, he was finally informed that the establishment would not provide him
any data. This infuriated him and, upon going back to the restaurant, he demanded his right to view the footage
or else he would create a scene. He was told that, as per their security policy, no “outsider” is allowed to enter
areas in their establishment designated only as “for employees only”. As a compromise, the manager said they
will give him a record of the footage using the customer’s handheld gadget.
 How to exercise your right to access your personal data

You must execute a written request to the organization, addressed to its Data Protection Officer (DPO). In the
letter, mention that your request is being made in exercise of your right to access under the Data Privacy Act of
2012. The DPO is required to respond to your written request. Be prepared to provide evidence of your identity,
which the DPO should require of you to make sure that personal information is not given to the wrong person.

If your request was not granted, or if you feel your request was not sufficiently addressed, you may file a formal
complaint with the NPC. Before doing so, however, we recommend that you inform the organization and its
DPO of your intention to formally complain to the NPC. They might be able to the opportunity to apologize,
better explain their position, or reconsider your request.

Additional notes:

Some exceptions may disallow the exercise of an individual’s right to access. This is to balance the right to
privacy of an individual versus the needs of civil society. Here are some examples:

 A criminal suspect is not allowed access to the personal data held about him by law enforcement agencies as it
may impede investigation.
 You are not allowed access to information about you as contained in communications between a lawyer and his
or her client, if such communication is subject to legal privilege in court.
 Your right to access your own medical and psychological data may be denied you in the rare instance where is
is deemed that your health and well-being might be negatively affected.

The right to object

Your consent is necessary before any organization can LAWFULLY collect and process your personal data. If
without your consent, any such collection and processing of personal information by any organization can be
contested as unlawful or ILLEGAL, and would therefore be answerable to the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

In case you already gave your consent by agreeing to an organization’s privacy notice, you can withdraw
consent if the personal information processor decided to amend said notice. In fact, the personal information
processor has the obligation to notify you of changes to their privacy notice and must explicitly solicit your
consent once again.

Example

The right to object is most specifically applicable when organizations or personal information controllers are
processing your data without your consent for the following purposes:

 Direct marketing purposes. When business organizations give you sales materials about products and
services, they must explicitly inform or remind you of your right to object. If you feel uncomfortable to being
target of a direct marketing campaign, you must be able to easily invoke your right to object. If you previously
acceded but wishes to opt-out, you must be given an easy way to opt-out. In asserting your right to object being
included in a direct marketing campaign, businesses have no recourse but to accede as there are no exemptions
or grounds for refusal in this case.
 Profiling purposes. Businesses customarily resort to profiling, or the creation of profiles of individual
customers and clients without their consent. This is done either for marketing or customer care purposes. The
cross-referencing of customer information to product marketing brings about practical advantages to both the
 buyer and seller in any potential business transaction. Under RA 10173, however, profiling of this requires your
consent as customer, or else you are justified in invoking your right to object. The right of state agents to do
profiling for law enforcement purposes, however, may override your right to object.
 Automated processing purposes. In technology-driven industries, such as banking and finance, many
decisions affecting individuals are arrived at electronically via automatic data processing systems based on
personal information stored in computerized data files. This reduces the business transaction process down to a
few seconds and facilitates a speedy exchange of economic value. Potentially, however, it may also
inadvertently arrive at decisions prejudicial to your interests and lead to the weakening of your position as a
transacting party. As such, organizations are required to notify you whether your personal data will undergo
automatic processing, and inform you that you have a right to object.

How to exercise your right to object

Whenever you have the chance, you may assert your right to object verbally, be it in person or via a phone call.
To have it formally documented, however, you must execute a written request to the organization, addressed to
its Data Protection Officer (DPO), and have it received. In the letter, mention that your request is being made in
exercise of your right to object under the Data Privacy Act of 2012. The DPO must act on your written request.
In case you feel your request have not been addressed satisfactorily, you may file a formal complaint before the
NPC, attached therewith your request letter to the DPO.

Additional Notes

Personal data collectors, collectors and processors must stop processing your data when you assert your right to
object unless they can cite legitimate grounds for overriding it such as the following:

 When the personal data is needed in pursuant to a subpoena.

 When the collection and processing are for obvious purposes — such as in contracts where you are a party.
 And when the information being collected and processed is due to a legal obligation on the part of the Personal
Information Controller (such as for employment records purposes).

The right to erasure or blocking

Under the law, you have the right to suspend, withdraw or order the blocking, removal or destruction of your
personal data. You can exercise this right upon discovery and substantial proof of the following:

1. Your personal data is incomplete, outdated, false, or unlawfully obtained.

2. It is being used for purposes you did not authorize.
3. The data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected.
4. You decided to withdraw consent, or you object to its processing and there is no overriding legal ground
for its processing.
5. The data concerns information prejudicial to the data subject — unless justified by freedom of speech, of
expression, or of the press; or otherwise authorized (by court of law)
6. The processing is unlawful.
7. The personal information controller, or the personal information processor, violated your rights as data
subject.

Example

In several cases, the need to balance this right with the freedom of expression and public interest has been
highlighted as follows:
 Melvin v. Reid (as published in
http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=bjil)

“In Melvin v. Reid, 34 decided in 1931, for example, a homemaker, who had once worked as a prostitute and
who had been wrongly accused of murder, became the subject of a feature film (“The Red Kimono”) seven
years after her acquittal, based on the facts of her trial. Although not specifically referencing a right to be
forgotten, the court, permitting suit against the film-maker, noted: “One of the major objectives of society as it
is now constituted, and of the administration of our penal system, is the rehabilitation of the fallen and the
reformation of the criminal.” The court held that the unnecessary use of the plaintiff’s real name inhibited her
right to obtain rehabilitation.”

 Sidis v. F-R Publishing Corp.

(http://communication.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-
9780190228613-e-189?rskey=Mr5AR5&result=1)

“Newsworthiness, or public interest, generally trumps privacy in the United States. This fact was recognized as
early as 1890, by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in their famous Harvard Law Review article, “The Right
to Privacy.” The principle was further reinforced in 1940, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit held that former child prodigy William James Sidis, who had made great efforts to become a private
citizen again after having received extensive news coverage as a young boy, could not prevail in a privacy
action against a magazine that featured him in a “Where Are They Now?” section. The court held that the
public retained a legitimate interest in knowing whether Sidis had lived up to the intellectual promise of his
youth.”

 Karnataka High Court Judgement (http://lexinsider.com/a-high-court-gives-life-to-the-right-to-be-

forgotten-right/)

“…the High Court of Karnataka after passing of the order on a criminal matter which was relating to a
complaint given by the Petitioner’s daughter and filing a case in the High Court that her marriage never
happened with defendant. The petition was to annul the marriage certificate and later the case was quashed on
comprise between the parties. In the same case Petitioner’s daughter name was requested to be removed from
the digital records of the High Court and also from search engines including Google as it affected her
relationship with her husband and her reputation as well.The High Court ordered, “It should be the endeavor of
the Registry to ensure that any internet search made in the public domain ought not to reflect the petitioner’s
daughter’s name in the cause-title of the order or in the body of the order in the criminal petition.”, giving life
to this right. However, the name of the petitioner’s daughter would certainly be reflected in the order copy was
made clear.”

How to exercise your right to erasure (or blocking)

Execute a written request to the organization, addressed to its Data Protection Officer (DPO), and have it
received. In the letter, mention that your request is being made in exercise of your right to erasure under the
Data Privacy Act of 2012. Documents to support your request must be attached. The DPO must act on your
written request. In case you feel your request have not been addressed satisfactorily, you may file a formal
complaint before the NPC, attached therewith your request letter to the DPO.
The right to damages

You may claim compensation if you suffered damages due to inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false,
unlawfully obtained or unauthorized use of personal data, considering any violation of your rights and freedoms
as data subject.

Example

This example is from the United Kingdom, as published at:

http://www.nabarro.com/insight/briefings/2017/february/assessing-damages-for-data-protection-and-data-
privacy/

“In October 2013, the Home Office published quarterly statistics about the family returns process by which
applicants who have children but who have no right to remain in the UK are returned to their country of origin.

The Home Office uploaded anonymised statistics, but they also mistakenly uploaded a spreadsheet of raw data
on which those statistics were based. This spreadsheet contained personal data and private information of
approximately 1,600 individuals, including their names, ages, nationality, the fact of an asylum claim, the
regional office which dealt with their case and their immigration removal status.

This data remained online for nearly two weeks before it was removed but during that time the webpage had
been visited by IP addresses across the UK and abroad. As a result, a small number of these individuals brought
claims for misuse of private information and breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

The defendant accepted that their accidental publication of personal data amounted to a misuse of private and
confidential information and a breach of the DPA. It was not disputed that, subject to proof, damages were
recoverable for distress at common law and section 13 of the DPA, unless Google Inc v Vidal-Hall is
overturned.

The six individuals who brought the claims were awarded between £2,500 and £12,500 in damages for misuse
of their private information and the distress suffered as a result of the data breach.

How to exercise your right to damages

Write or speak to the organization which mishandled your personal information to see if you can reach an
agreement and claim compensation. If you feel that your concern has not been satisfactorily addressed, you
should write to the organization and inform them of your intent to take the matter to the court, before you start
court proceedings. Talk to a legal adviser if you want to make a claim in court.

The NPC has no role in dealing with compensation claims. But you may request us to assess if the organization
mishandled your personal data and broke the DPA. You can give a copy of the NPC’s letter to the court along
with the evidence to prove your claim. This, however, does not guarantee that the judge will fully agree with
NPC’s view. You may also require someone from the NPC to give expert evidence which will only be allowed
if the judge orders it. The party calling the witness will have to shoulder the corresponding cost.
The right to file a complaint with the National Privacy Commission

If you feel that your personal information has been misused, maliciously disclosed, or improperly disposed, or
that any of your data privacy rights have been violated, you have a right to file a complaint with the NPC.

To know more about this, click here.

The right to rectify

You have the right to dispute and have corrected any inaccuracy or error in the data a personal information
controller (PIC) hold about you. The PIC should act on it immediately and accordingly, unless the request is
vexatious or unreasonable. Once corrected, the PIC should ensure that your access and receipt of both new and
retracted information. PICs should also furnish third parties with said information, should you request it.

Example

A government employee resigned from her agency with a period with premium payments of 20.49 years. The
employee’s birthdate indicated in her Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) records is 30 June 1959.
However, her National Statistics Office (NSO) authenticated Certificate of Live Birth shows 30 June 1952 as
her birthdate. Her birthdate will determine when she will start receiving her monthly pension – in 2019 if based
on the GSIS record, and in 2012 if based on her birth certificate. She, thus, invoked her right to rectify her
personal data under the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

How to exercise your right to rectify

If the organization does not yet have a system or form for data rectification, you must execute a written request
to the organization, addressed to its Data Protection Officer (DPO), and have it received. In the letter, mention
that your request is being made in exercise of your right to object under the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Documents to support your request must be attached. The DPO must act on your written request. In case you
feel your request have not been addressed satisfactorily, you may file a formal complaint before the NPC,
attached therewith your request letter to the DPO.

Some organizations already have their system or form for data rectification. For instance, the Social Security
System (SSS) only requires their members to accomplish SSS Form E-4 or the Member Data Change Request
Form and submit with it the supporting documents. The needed supporting documents vary depending on the
personal data that you want corrected (i.e. for correction of name and birthdate – PSA/NSO-authenticated birth
certificate or valid passport, for correction of name due to naturalization – Certificate of Naturalization issued
by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, identification certificate issued by the Philippine Bureau of
Immigration, and any foreign government- issued ID cards and/or documents showing the new name).

Additional notes

For organizations, click here to view a sample of a personal data rectification form.
The right to data portability

This right assures that YOU remain in full control of YOUR data. Data portability allows you to obtain and
electronically move, copy or transfer your data in a secure manner, for further use. It enables the free flow of
your personal information across the internet and organizations, according to your preference. This is important
especially now that several organizations and services can reuse the same data.

Data portability allows you to manage your personal data in your private device, and to transmit your data from
one personal information controller to another. As such, it promotes competition that fosters better services for
the public.

Example

In case you want to close your Facebook account and leave the service, or simply feel like you’ve shared a lot
of information about your life and want a backup of all your Facebook data, you may exercise your right to data
portability.

You may also exercise this right if you intend to get a usable copy of your personal health records for the use of
other doctors you may like to consult. In banking, the right to data portability may be used to reduce the risks of
being locked-in with one single service provider, thereby expanding customers’ options and improving
customer experience.

How to exercise your right to data portability

Various online platforms have been making data portability an available and instant option for its users. For
instance, Facebook enabled its users to readily download all their personal content and information, including
wall posts, status updates, photos, videos, and conversation threads. Currently, users will just have to click at
the top right of any Facebook page and select “Settings”, then click “Download a copy of your Facebook data”
at the bottom of “General Account Settings”, and click “Start My Archive”. Google has a similar feature that
readily allows its users to create an archive to keep for their personal record or for use in another service.

In case the personal information controller concerned does not yet have an online data portability feature, you
must execute a written request to the organization, addressed to its Data Protection Officer (DPO), and have it
received. In the letter, mention that your request is being made in exercise of your right to data portability under
the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Documents to support your request must be attached. The DPO must act on your
written request. In case you feel your request have not been addressed satisfactorily, you may file a formal
complaint before the NPC, attached therewith your request letter to the DPO.

Transmissibility of Data Subject Rights

Just like any physical property, such as real estate, you can assign your rights as a data subject to your legal
assignee or lawful heir. Similarly, you may assert another person’s rights as a data subject, provided he or she
authorized you as a “legal assignee”.

You may also invoke another person’s data privacy rights after his or her death if you are his or her legal heir.
This same principle applies to parents of minors, or their legal guardian, who are responsible for asserting their
rights on their behalf.
This right, however, is not applicable in case the processed personal data being contested are used only for
scientific and statistical research.

The practical need for transmissibility

An individual’s personal data lives on even after his death. As such, they could still be subject to privacy
violations whether intentional or otherwise. The Data Privacy Act of 2012 included this provision to protect
their privacy rights through a living person willing to assume the responsibility on their behalf. The
transmissibility of data privacy rights has been extended to living adults who are unable to protect their own
rights and wish to assign the responsibility to someone else.

How to execute

Data subjects who are alive but incapacitated, for some reason unable to to assert their own personal privacy
rights and wish to authorize a “legal assignee” to act as their proxy may do so by executing a legal notice to the
effect, such as through a Special Power of Attorney.

In case of a deceased data subject, the legal heir must be prepared to show legal evidence to back their claim.
Parents or guardians automatically assume the responsibility of protecting the privacy rights of minors under
their care.

Limitations on Rights

The provisions of the law regarding transmissibility of rights and the right to data portability will not apply if
the processed personal data are used only for the needs of scientific and statistical research and, based on such,
no activities are carried out and no decisions are taken regarding the data subject. There should also be an
assurance that the personal data will be held under strict confidentiality and used only for the declared purpose.

They will not also apply to the processing of personal data gathered for investigations in relation to any
criminal, administrative or tax liabilities of a data subject. Any limitations on the rights of the data subject
should only be to the minimum extent necessary to achieve the purpose of said research or investigation.