Many eyes have been watching the progress of the SIM Card Registration Act, which finally made it to the Senate last month after some lengthy processes. Now, it appears ever closer to its implementation as President Bongbong Marcos is set to sign the SIM Card Registration Act tomorrow, October 10.
To summarize, the goal of this act is to crack down and possibly eliminate dubious activities being conducted by text scammers and phishing specialists as of late. These have caused massive losses and private telcos have been doing their best to act upon these, but there is only so much they can do.
As such, once enacted into law, the SIM Card Registration Act will mandate all SIM cards to be sold as deactivated devices. Activation requires in-person appearances which verify the owner of the SIM card, holding them accountable for illegal activities conducted via that number. Existing SIM card users, which is probably everyone who uses a mobile device, have 180 days to register with the necessary bodies.
Retailers will be properly trained on how to conduct these identity verification processes in order to standardize these across the country. Understanding that these registrations would entail the collection of a massive amount of personal data, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) said this in a statement: “Hence, there is a strong need to develop a technology-neutral approach and to future-proof the proposed legislation to achieve its intended purpose, in a manner that respects the rights and freedoms of the data subjects.”
They will also look into the pros and cons of using a centralized server versus multiple ones, in terms of damage control if a data breach does occur.
Image: PBBM Official Website
Sources have claimed that there is a high probability of President Marcos signing the SIM Card Registration Act tomorrow. After all, all members of legislation have poured in their efforts to make sure that this is something produced in good faith, and the president has shown no signs of wanting to veto it.
We’ll have to wait and see how the events involving the President and the SIM Card Registration Act unveil tomorrow.
