The National Privacy Commission (NPC) recently issued NPC Circular No. 2024-01 (“Circular”), which amends certain provisions of the 2021 Rules of Procedure. The Circular aims to further streamline the process of receiving complaints and instituting investigations on matters affecting any personal information. The amendments impose certain requirements in case of privacy violation complaints by minors or persons alleged to be incompetent.
On 7 November 2023, the National Privacy Commission issued Advisory No. 2023-01, which sets out guidance on the nature of deceptive design patterns and how their use by personal information controllers and personal information processors when securing consent vitiates the consent of the data subject and consequently renders the data processing to be without lawful basis.
This Advisory supplements the recently issued NPC Circular No. 2023-04, or the comprehensive guidelines on the use of consent as a lawful basis for processing data, which, among others, prohibits the use of deceptive design patterns.
On 10 October 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 11934, otherwise known as the “Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act”. The primary purpose of the Act is to mandate all public telecommunications entities to require the registration of SIM cards prior to their sale and activation, in an effort to promote accountability and provide law enforcement with an identification tool in resolving crimes .
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11659 or “An Act Amending Commonwealth Act No. 146,” otherwise known as the Public Service Act, as amended on 21 March 2022. The amendment aims to liberalize previously restricted service industries to encourage private enterprise and foreign investment. While the law provides an exclusive list of sectors that are to be classified as ‘public utilities’ that remain subject to foreign ownership restrictions, the amendment also removes the 40% foreign ownership investment cap on certain public service sectors, including telecommunications.