A HOUSE leader on Wednesday pushed for the passage of a bill penalizing public disclosure of the personal user information of mobile phone subscribers, including their history of voice calls and text messages without their explicit permission or a valid court order.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte proposed that telecommunications companies and individuals be barred from using personal user data for their marketing or promotional gimmicks without the prior consent of their subscribers.
Villafuerte said: “Many cellphone subscribers often get calls or text messages from telemarketers peddling or advertising various kinds of goods or services, even when they haven’t given their mobile phone numbers to any firm or person selling such products or services.
“A person’s mobile phone number, including one’s history of calls and text messages, are private, and should not be disclosed by anyone with access to such information, which could be used for malicious purposes.”
Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said such violations of a person’s privacy if used maliciously, should be addressed with heavy penalties of as high as P1 to P10 million, and even the suspension or revocation of the franchises of the erring telecom firm.
Under House Bill 4695 filed by Villafuerte, an individual who commits this violation shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than six months but not more than one year, and with a fine of not less than P100,000 but not more than P500,000.
If the offender is a foreigner, he or she shall be deported after serving the sentence and paying the fine.
The National Telecommunications Commission, Villafuerte pointed out, has long been asking Congress to provide it with more “teeth” to compel Telcos to improve their services and speed up the country’s slow Internet connection.
Villafuerte said his proposal, HB 4695, was a timely response to the NTC’s call.
He pointed out that HB 4695 also legislated minimum quality standards for mobile telephone services to, once and for all, punish Telcos that are guilty of “horrendous” complaints by subscribers, such as
poor network signals, overcharging, interrupted or dropped voice calls, vanishing prepaid loads and the surge of spam messages.
The bill also proposes to require the NTC to come up with a comprehensive and efficient system for subscribers to report their complaints of substandard services by their respective Telco providers.
“HB 4695 seeks to protect the interests of Filipino mobile service consumers by regulating prices, requiring proper detailed billing of both prepaid and postpaid subscriptions, and providing full mobile number portability,” Villafuerte said.
Other service improvements specified in Villafuerte’s bill include offering consumers insurance for their mobile devices and prohibiting unsolicited commercial advertisements unless allowed by them and that must be sent only during business hours.
To further improve mobile voice and data services in the country, Villafuerte has also been urging local government units (LGUs) to ease regulations for Telcos in setting up in their respective localities the infrastructure necessary to ensure the delivery of reliable, faster digital services.
