Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On September 20, 2019, the Philippines National Privacy Commission (“NPC”) announced it has filed its notice of intent to join the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CBPR”) system. The Philippines would be the ninth member of the CBPR system, joining the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and Chinese Taipei.

After securing membership, the NPC will 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.

The APEC CBPR system is a regional, multilateral, cross-border data transfer mechanism and enforceable privacy code of conduct developed for businesses by the 21 APEC member economies. The CBPRs implement the nine high-level APEC Privacy Principles set forth in the APEC Privacy Framework. In order to participate in the CBPR, individual APEC economies must officially express their intent to join and satisfy certain requirements. All APEC economies have endorsed the CBPR system and it is expected that additional APEC economies will join the CBPR system in the near future.