Local BPO firms step up to further strengthen data privacy in industry

National Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro (seated, third from left) with CCAP officers and BPO heads during the recent Data Privacy Asia 2017 conference held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. Seated from left: CCAP Learning Series Taskforce Lead Espie Bulseco, Information Integrity Solutions Pty Ltd Managing Director Malcolm Crompton, Liboro, Deputy Privacy Commissioner Dondi Mapa, and SyCip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan Senior Partner Atty Rose Marie King-Dominguez. Standing from left: Visaya KPO Presidnt Butch Valenzuela, CCAP Director Ayhee Campos, CCAP President Jojo Uligan, and CCAP Corporate Secretary Micky Ocampo. (Photo from NPC’s FB page)

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) and its member-companies have started taking measures to ensure full compliance to Data Privacy Act, which would put the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in a better position as a world-class data processing hub.

The organization recently teamed up with the Data Privacy Asia Pte. Ltd. of Singapore for the staging of the Data Privacy Asia 2017. The daylong event gathered executives and representatives of CCAP-member BPOs to discuss standards for data privacy protection, which is set to make this local industry stronger and more trusted by partners and clients worldwide.

With the theme ‘Data Privacy and Cyber Security: Impact on Outsourcing,’ the industry summit aimed to help increase awareness among business leaders on how to protect their companies amid rising threats of data breach, hacking, and data theft globally.

Shift in focus
“Prior to this, our focus was more on fully understanding what data privacy is all about,” said CCAP President Jojo Uligan. “Right now, our concerns are how it will affect our industry and the Philippine economy, our people, and the way we do business.”

Uligan added that moving forward, CCAP will ensure full compliance to the data privacy law. He clarified that the country’s BPO industry has always been compliant with what the customers are asking from them.

For Information Integrity Solutions Pty Ltd Managing Director Malcolm Crompton, there are still many things that our BPO firms must do. One of which, he pointed out, was full compliance to the law that is being enforced by the National Privacy Commission NPC), which in turn set a September deadline for all Philippine-based BPOs to complete all the requirements.

Industry compliance
NPC Commissioner Raymund Liboro reiterated those basic requirements: assigning of a data protection officer per company and completion of a simple, 25-item checklist. “Compliance to data privacy law must not be seen as an added cost by the BPO firms. Instead, it is an added value to their business,” Liboro said.

The Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry is among the major contributors to the national economy. It is expected to eventually overtake remittances by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to become the top contributor to the country’s coffers.

Source: https://goo.gl/mqn6KS