LITO AVERIA
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 fell on a weekend and it went by with nary a whimper. But it was a significant date for the National Privacy Commission (NPC). It was the deadline for organizations, private and public, to inform the NPC that they have designated a data protection officer (DPO). As practice would have it, organizations had until the first working day following the weekend or holiday, to still meet the deadline, which happened to be September 11, 2017. The NPC has been campaigning hard to ensure compliance with Republic Act 10173, or the Data Privacy Act, and in the process generated heightened awareness about the need to protect personal data in information systems, manual or automated.