Contact Tracing Forms Must Collect Only What is Necessary

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is discouraging the collection of signatures and other unnecessary personal information for contact-tracing forms and has called on businesses to work toward complying with data privacy standards. The statement comes in light of inquiries and information communicated to NPC that private establishments as well as some government agencies collect signatures and other personal data that are immaterial in moving contact-tracing efforts forward. “In every aspect of the data processing cycle, activities must observe the basic principles of transparency, legitimate purpose and proportionality,” said lawyer Stephen John Duma of the NPC Compliance and Monitoring Division. The NPC reminded data protection officers (DPOs) of their ever-evolving duties in a fast-changing landscape, highlighting the need to update their privacy notice and manual, and re-...