Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On March 9, 2020, the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CBPR”) system Joint Oversight Panel approved the Philippines’ application to join the APEC CBPR system. The Philippines becomes the ninth APEC economy to join the CBPR system, joining the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Australia.

As we previously reported, the Philippines National Privacy Commission will now have to identify an accountability agent, which, once approved, will be able to independently assess and certify the compliance of Philippine companies under the APEC CBPR System.

This makes the Philippines the fourth APEC economy to join the system in the last two years. Other APEC economies are expected to join in the near future.

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recently published a Q&A on the APEC CBPR and Privacy Recognition for Processors systems. The Q&A is designed to explain the workings of both systems, who currently is participating in them and how interested companies can certify.