THE National Privacy Commission (NPC) launched a formal investigation on Faceboook following Mark Zuckerberg’s admission of the company’s faults in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that has affected Filipino Facebook users.

In a formal letter addressed to Zuckerberg, the NPC is requiring Facebook to submit a number of documents relevant to the case, to establish the scope and impact of the incident to Filipino data subjects.

The letter was sent on April 11, 2018 via the company’s regional office based in Singapore.





“We are launching an investigation into Facebook to determine whether there is unauthorized processing of personal data of Filipinos, and other possible violations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012,” an excerpt of the letter sent to Zuckerberg read.

Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro and deputy commissioners Ivy Patdu and Leandro Aguirre signed the letter.

NPC will particularly look into how Facebook shares the personal data of Filipino users with third parties. It will also address the bigger picture of protecting the data privacy rights of the millions of Filipinos who use Facebook in their daily lives.

“Data subjects have the right to know exactly how their data is being processed. The scope of this right extends to ensuring that Facebook users understand with whom their data is shared, who gets to process their data, and the standards with which their data gets processed,” NPC’s letter said.

Earlier this week, NPC reported that more than one million Facebook users in the Philippines may have been compromised. It noted that data from these users were “improperly shared.”

The NPC, citing a report from Facebook, said that 558 Filipino users alone had installed the This is Your Digital Life app, developed by Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan, which offered a personality quiz.

The app reportedly not only collected the users’ data but also collected information from their Facebook friends and these were allegedly sold to Cambridge Analytica.

“We require a more detailed timeline of the incidents relating to the discovery of the abuse on the part of Dr. Aleksandr Kogan. We will also need to know who inside Facebook discovered the abuse and acted on it. Kindly provide us with documentation and other evidence on these matters,” NPC’s letter said.

NPC said that while Facebook reported that the data collected from users were destroyed, documentation between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, which proves that the data had been destroyed, would have to be submitted.

The privacy watchdog said Facebook should submit the documents within fifteen days from the receipt of the letter and failure to do so would result in NPC taking ” further corrective actions to protect the interests of Filipino data subjects.” ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES