INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS
15 August 2012 marked the birth of the Data Privacy Act of 2012
('Act') – the Philippines' first ever
consolidated data privacy legislation, which was significantly
influenced by Directive 95/46/EC of the European Union and the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation ('APEC') Information Privacy
Framework. The introduction of the Act follows a series of
developments in the expansion of data privacy laws in the Asia
Pacific region and adds to an increasingly complex data privacy
environment, particularly for organisations using business process
outsourcing ('BPO') services based in the region.
The Act aims to substantially raise the profile of the
Philippines in the data privacy (and business in the data
processing) sphere by mandating that all personal information
controllers ('Controller'), being persons who control the
collection, holding, processing or use of the personal information
of others (defined in the Act as 'Data
