Suspending data privacy act amid pandemic counterproductive: NPC

In a statement, the NPC said the call of some business groups to suspend the DPA to ease contact tracing was a “gross disregard for the expert opinions” of epidemiologists and scientists around the world. (File photo: National Privacy Commission/Facebook)

MANILA – The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Friday said suspending the Data Privacy Act (DPA) and publicly naming persons infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is counterproductive in fighting the pandemic.

In a statement, the NPC said the call of some business groups to suspend the DPA to ease contact tracing was a “gross disregard for the expert opinions” of epidemiologists and scientists around the world.

“Singapore and Thailand, which have been cited for their success in contact tracing in battling the virus, have not considered suspending a fundamental human right as a measure to fight the pandemic,” the statement read.

It said while there is no evidence that naming those infected will have public health benefits, there is evidence that outing the infected lead to public discrimination, shaming, and social vigilantism.

“Such prejudicial treatment has prevented Covid positive individuals and their close contacts from coming out to seek testing and treatment, making it more difficult for authorities to more accurately capture how far Covid has spread,” the NPC said.

It noted that existing provisions in the country’s laws are enough to effectively conduct contact tracing treat patients, and address other challenges of the pandemic while securing the personal data and “dignity of our citizens.

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“The call to suspend the DPA in the name of public disclosure is anti-poor and devoid of science and ethics. Let us move forward the fight against Covid with more evidence-based proposals and solutions,” the NPC said.

On Thursday, some top officials of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and other business groups asked for the suspension of the enforcement of the DPA to know the identities of those infected with Covid-19.

The request, made through a letter dated September 21 and addressed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), noted that the government has already “taken away many constitutional rights” in its implementation of strict quarantine protocols.