Philippines: Adopted NPC Advisory Opinion No. 2017-63 on Personal and Sensitive Information

On 9 October 2017, the Philippine National Privacy Commission (NPC) adopted the Advisory Opinion No. 2017-63 on Personal and Sensitive Information. The Advisory was issued in response to an inquiry relating to whether certain data is considered as personal data under Philippine law. The NPC specifies that usernames, passwords, IP addresses, MAC addresses, locations, cookies and birthdays amount to personal data according to the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and must adhere to the regulations set forth therein. The Advisory further provides details on biometric data as sensitive data and the obligations this puts on data processors.