NTC assures Filipinos again: Public’s data safe under mandatory SIM card registration

Following the alleged personal data leak involving law enforcement agencies in the Philippines, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) once again assured the public that all information and data gathered during the mandatory Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card registration will be treated as confidential. In a “Laging Handa” public briefing, NTC Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan explained that under Republic Act No. 11934, otherwise known as the SIM Registration Act, information given to public telecommunication entities (PTEs) will not be released, except in defined instances. SIM cards (Pixabay)
“This SIM card registration, it designated telcos to have their own sim registry. Pursuant to the law and our implementing rules and regulations, minimum cybersecurity standards were set for the telcos to keep the SIM registry absolutely confidential,” said Salvahan in a mix of English and Filipino. “[Data will not be released] except in certain defined instances if there is consent from the subscriber, if there is a court order, or subpoena issued for the telco to share or release the data or information,” he added. The mandatory registration will end on April 26. Non-compliance will result in the permanent deactivation of a user’s SIM. Despite the appeals from PTEs, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said no registration extension will be made at this point. Latest data from NTC showed that only 75,564,837 SIMs have so far been registered. This is equivalent to 44.97 percent of the existing 168,016,400 cards nationwide.