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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
SUPREME Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno has
called on Congress for the crafting of tougher protective laws on
personal information privacy to serve as deterrent against identity
thieves.
Puno made the appeal in the wake of advances in
global information technology, making it easier for criminals to
steal one’s identity. He warned that identity theft could become a
real problem soon, unless measures are immediately put into place
to avert it from becoming a national problem, similar to what is
happening in other countries.
He cited in particular the identity theft
problem in the United States, which, he said has already become
among the “fastest growing financial crimes with more than 500,000
victims each year”.
“The internet is a tool that made it
easier and cheaper to access data on just about anyone. Identity
theft is a violation of the right to informational privacy and may
cause one to become burdened by the wrongful use of his personal
information,” he pointed out.
Identity theft occurs “when an individual
appropriates another’s name, address, social security number or
other identifying information to commit fraud”.
He stressed that lawmakers should band together
to create tougher laws, which can be used to punish these erring
individuals, and to prevent them from using the internet and
computers in their dirty work.
To support writ of habeas data
The Senate and the House of Representatives, he
said, should now work together for tougher informational privacy
laws in support of the writ of habeas data.
“The promulgation of the writ of habeas
data is but a small step to protect the informational privacy of the
Filipino individual. More need to be done,” he said.
Informational privacy is defined as “the
right of individuals to control the flow of information involving
them,” while the writ of habeas data is “a procedure de-signed
to safeguard individual freedom in the information age”.
He likewise pointed out that the
Philippines has an outdated law on data or information transfer.
He said that while Presidential Decree
1718 contains exceptions for exportations of information that are
matter of form in connection with business transactions, that law
cannot be implemented because of the lack of rules and regulations
in its implementation.
“In other countries, privacy protection
has become an impetus for modern laws that protect data and
information. The United Kingdom has promulgated their Data
Protection Act of 1998 and Australia has promulgated their Privacy
Act of 1988. Today, all member countries of the European Union are
required to legislate to ensure that citizens have a right to
privacy, through the regional governing body,” Puno stressed.
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