Gov’t urged to boost data privacy protection vs. scams

The government should strengthen the country’s data privacy protection and public education to combat digital scams, a digital advocacy group said Thursday.

In a statement, Junk Sim Registration Network said that even if updating the SIM Registration Act is part of the government’s efforts to curb digital scams in the country, “addressing cybercrimes as a complex and high-tech field needs more than just asking the subscribers to enroll their SIM cards.”

The group called on the government to “abandon the SIM registration” and instead focus on efforts that would improve public awareness and strong data privacy and information security measures.

The group also said SIM registration creates a database that could be a target for cyber attacks, contrary to its purpose of protecting users against text-related crimes.

“Comprehensive data privacy protection and educating the public against digital scams which are supposed to be the primary responsibilities of the government are more imperative than reviewing and revising the SIM Registration Act,” the group said.

The call to amend the SIM Registration Act was prompted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology's warning that scammers use Viber and Messenger and foreign SIMs to engage in crimes that are not covered by the law. 

The National Telecommunications Commission earlier acknowledged that the SIM Registration Law is not a “silver bullet” against text scams as it continues to face several challenges in its implementation. —Mariel Celine Serquiña/LDF, GMA Integrated News