Three week ago (Feb 12,2021) I went to our office in Ortigas Center in Pasig and I parked in Podium Mall. When I was entering the mall the guard said do you have QR Code so I flashed my Pasig Pass QR and it accepted it and then I went to the office in front of the mall.
When I finished my errands I entered Podium Mall again and the guard said do you have a MandaTrack so before entering the mall and out of curiosity I looked at MandaTrack on the web and what I saw are the same user interface, same privacy notice except for a miniscule change.
The Logo of Pasig and Mandaluyong.
I didn’t register on MandaTrack but when I entered I presented my Pasig Pass and it went thru. Both Pasig and Mandaluyong are saying that they own the system and they developed it so it is in fact a violation or we may consider this as a data breach since two systems are now talking to each other without any consent from its data subjects. This only means that the developers are the same and both the application developer and the city government of Pasig and Mandaluyong are in violation of the RA10173 and has not reported any data breach to the National Privacy Commission.
And today (March 1, 2021) the four mayors of Antipolo, Pasig, Valenzuela and Mandaluyong had a press release that their contact tracing efforts are now interconnected. And yet the privacy notice has not changed.
We have to understand that when we collect personal information we need to protect it and the manner of collection is very important as well. The Developer of this apps are definitely a Data Controller and the LGUs are also co-data controllers. When the developer is not even being named on this applications and no data protection officer is also mentioned on the LGUs there is something wrong.
On our previous article we mentioned that Pasig Pass is in violation of the Data Privacy Act or RA10173. This applications are in fact a surveillance apps not a contact tracing application because there is no health declaration being done on the app. And if we look at the municipal / city resolution they are threading on human rights and discrimination since they are penalizing enterprises if you don’t follow and install this apps.
This is not just a violation the Data Privacy Act / RA10173 but also on our Bill of Rights on Article 3 Section 1 and 2 of the Philippine Constitution!!!