Celebrating Data Privacy Day

Today is World Data Privacy Day, and privacy professionals across the globe are celebrating it.

According to this Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Privacy_Day#cite_note-dataprivacyday-2], Data Privacy Day is marked on January 28 because on January 28, 1981, the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data was opened for signature by the Council of Europe. The celebration of Data Privacy Day was first held in Europe in 2007 as European Data Protection Day.

The IAPP [https://iapp.org/] is celebrating Data Privacy Day with several talks organized by its KnowledgeNet Chapters worldwide. I was part of the discussion hosted by the Philippines' KNet Chapter yesterday on the state of Privacy in the Philippines and predictions for 2023. Atty. Rainer Anthony Milanes, who heads the National Privacy Commission's Compliance and Monitoring Division, was there. Attys. Jon Bello, of Medialdea Bello and Suarez Law, and J.R. Robert Real, of Mynt-Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. completed the panel of speakers.

There were a lot of questions for Atty. RAM of the NPC about the new registration rules. In a previous blog, I wrote about how the NPC released its new circular on registration under the radar. The NPC has yet to issue a formal announcement on the new rules but you can get Circular No. 2022-04 now at the NPC website [https://www.privacy.gov.ph/memorandum-circulars/]. Atty. RAM said that the NPC's new registration portal will be launched next week (that means, the week of January 30). As expected, there was a lot of interest in the new requirements of registration, and one question raised in the Zoom comments section was whether the NPC would consider extending the deadline for registration considering that the 180-day deadline is now running that the NPC portal is not yet up. Atty. RAM remained non-committal but he did say that organizations could prioritize the registration of its most critical data processing systems within the deadline and continue to update their registrations on an ongoing basis.

Aside from taking part in the KNet activity, I also (finally!) launched my YouTube channel "Everyday Privacy." Nope, I will not be uploading a video every day but I intend to use the channel to popularize privacy and shed light on everyday topics that relate to privacy as a right, as a practice, and as a legal obligation. Subscribe to Everyday privacy here: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsPEnfq1bygRfdA-nB9-PMA].