The National Privacy Commission on Friday opened an investigation into Facebook following the recent admission of the social media giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg of the company’s faults in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that affected Filipino users of the online network.
In a letter to Zuckerberg, the Commission asked Facebook to submit several documents relevant to the case to establish the scope and impact of the incident to Filipino data subjects.
“We are launching an investigation into Facebook to determine whether there was an unauthorized processing of the personal data of Filipinos, and other possible violations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012,” said an excerpt from the letter.
This developed as President Rodrigo Duterte denied hiring Cambridge Analytica for his election campaign that led to his landslide victory in the 2016 presidential elections.
He said he might not be the President right now if he had tapped the services of the consultancy firm.
“I could even have lost if I had tapped it,” Duterte said upon his arrival from China, where he attended the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province.
Duterte insisted he won the elections because the people wanted him to change the country that burdened by illegal drugs and corrupt officials.
“I don’t have Cambridge-Cambridge, Oxford,” he said. “I won by campaigning.”
A political analyst claims that Duterte did not just win the election at the ballot, but also on Facebook.
The Philippines is prime Facebook country, where cellular phones outnumber the population and where 97 percent of Filipinos have Facebook accounts.
Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro and deputy commissioners Ivy Patdu and Leandro Aguirre signed the letter to Zuckerberg, who recently testified before the United States Congress.
The local privacy watchdog will examine how Facebook shares the personal data of Filipino users with third parties like Cambridge Analytica.
It will also address the bigger picture of protecting the data privacy rights of millions of Filipinos who use Facebook daily.