Outsourcing in the Philippines

1. Outsourcing in the Philippines: Is Your Privacy Protected? By Roy Jonathan del Rosario Does Philippines have laws which guard the confidentiality of private information that is held regarding a person in the course of private conversations on the phone or on-line for business or any legal purposes for instance, in the outsourcing industry? Most businessmen are being anxious whether or not to avail Inbound call center solution or more specifically customer care services because at stake is the confidentiality of their business documents or whatever it is that needs privacy. It is their lack of knowledge that there are certain laws in the Philippine Constitution that protect their rights for privacy which hinders them from making their other business processes done by more skilled specialists outside their company, which might make it more efficiently done and added the advantage of cutting

2. the high-priced expenditures of the company when the business processes were done in- house. Among these laws that can give confidentiality and safeguard of data to the businessmen incl the Republic Act No. 8792 which is also known as the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000. In this law, it lawfully recognizes electronic credentials and transactions, and defines what is legal for commercial and non-commercial purposes. The law states that: 1. Only persons with the lawful right to the data should have the access to it (Section31-Lawful Access); 2. People with the lawful right to the data should keep it confidential (Section32-Obligation of Confidentiality); and 3. Illegal access to the data is punishable by law (Section 33-Penalties). Another law that is stated is the Presidential Decree No. 1718 which puts restrictions on the transfer of documents and information outside the Philippines. On the other hand, the Philippine Constitution and Civil Law states that the privacy, including the privacy of data, is a constitutional right and is recognized in the Philippine Civil Law. Since bank documents are extremely confidential, there is the law which is the Bank Secrecy Act of 1995 which sets out the rules for keeping bank records confidential. And since communicating over the phone or on any forms of technology can be recorded, the Republic Act No. 4200 also known as the Anti-Wire Tapping Act, states that it is illegal to intercept or record private communications. Another important law which is known as the Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998 states the prohibition of the utilization of unauthorized ‘access devices’ which includes account numbers, credit cards and electronic serial numbers. Source: http://www.ukarc.com/faq.php#FAQ2