The Data Privacy Act will boost investment in the Philippines’ Information Technology- Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).
BPAP president and CEO Benedict Hernandez said that the proposed data privacy law – which is based on European Parliament standards and is in accordance with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Information Privacy Framework – will bring the country up to international standards of privacy protection and will increase confidence among investors and clients that outsource to the Philippines.
Hernandez explained that the IT-BPO sector – which according to BPAP generated $11 billion in revenue last year and generated 640,000 direct employment opportunities – is rapidly developing. Complex services, the BPAP official added, already account for more than 30 % of the IT-BPO industry’s revenues “and these services are growing more rapidly than voice services.”
“Much of this work involves confidential personal and company information, and client firms of our IT-BPOs want to know that the Philippines provides international standards of protection to safeguard their information,” Hernandez said in an interview published in the Philippine Star.
This kind of assurance of data protection, Hernandez added, will make the country’s IT-BPO even more competitive, which in turn will help sustain the industry’s growth, particularly in non-voice and value-added services.
Authored by Sen. Edgardo Angara, the proposed Data Privacy Act aims to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal data.
