Passport Printing Company Says That There Is No Data Breach And The DFA Has All Passport Info
DFA – In defense, a passport printing company official said that there was no data breach since the DFA has all the detailed info of passport applicants.
APO Production Unit Inc., a government printing company, was allegedly involved in an incident where a passport maker “ran off” with the data after the government “terminated” its contract.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) asked the applicants to bring their live birth certificate upon renewing their passports. The Malacañang Palace, however, rejected it as they described the said practice not only “cumbersome” to everyone affected but also a form of red tape, in which this administration frowns upon and will not tolerate.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the National Privacy Commission (NPC) has been ordered to investigate the incident and ascertain whether certain provisions of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, have been violated, particularly with respect to the personal information of the data subjects.
In addition, APO Production Unit Inc. chairman Michael Dalumpines recently said that the DFA has a software that contains the detailed information of all passport applicants, which is the reason why their IT personnel was able to retrive all the records.
According to Bombo Radyo, Foreign Affairs Teddy Locsin Jr. also clarified that they did not terminate the contract of the passport maker identified as French subcontractor and printing machine provider Oberthur Technologies.
Furthermore, sources say that the contract actually ended per agreement and it was turned over to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and there was actually a problem on the migration of data from Oberthur to DFA/AP0 due to incompatibility of softwares.
As per the report, National Privacy Commission chairman Raymund Liboro said that they will still investigate because the data can be used for malevolent reasons and they are currently unsafe.
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