The National Privacy Commission (NPC) invites companies and organizations to apply for accreditation as an Accountability Agent for the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) System.
The APEC CBPR System is voluntary and accountability-based, and facilitates data flows that respect privacy among APEC-member economies. The system requires organizations to develop and implement privacy policies and practices for all personal information that they have collected or received that is subject to cross-border transfer to other participating APEC members.
Accountability Agents perform a crucial role in the APEC CBPR System by certifying that the privacy policies and practices of participating companies or organizations are compliant with the CBPR System requirements.
“An Accountability Agent performs a key role in propelling the data privacy and protection landscape of the Philippines and elevating the country’s standing and reputation in the global trade,’’ Privacy Commissioner Raymund E. Liboro said.
“Likewise, the Accountability Agent is expected to collaborate with companies, consumers, and governments to ensure that cross-border data transfers are at par with the privacy standards set by APEC,” Liboro added.
NPC will accept applications starting October 15, 2021 and will evaluate all submission per batch. For the first batch, deadline is on November 29, 2021.
The Philippines became the ninth member economy participating in the CBPR System in March 2020. As the next step to fully implement the CBPR System in the Philippines, the NPC is currently working towards nominating an Accountability Agent who will certify companies in the APEC CBPR System.
For more information on the criteria for Accountability Agent recognition, visit the APEC CBPR System website at http://cbprs.org/documents/. Documents for AA recognition are also available here: https://www.privacy.gov.ph/documents-for- accountability-agent-recognition/.
Interested organizations must notify the NPC of their intent and submit a completed application for an initial assessment to npc.cbpr@privacy.gov.ph.
Any questions concerning the process may be addressed to npc.cbpr@privacy.gov.ph.