ICT companies as the Main Threat to Individual Privacy

The high economic premium given to information in the era of the information-driven economy will result in a phenomenon where the main threat to an individual’s right to privacy will not come from the State, as classically perceived, but from ICT companies. Why?

In an information-driven economy, information is money. Hence, there is a big profit motive for ICT companies to hoard personal information from individuals. Example? Call Center companies highly value their costumer databases. Because of this profit motive, information given by individuals to a corporation for a specific purpose, may be used by that corporation for other purposes. Hence, ICT companies are more efficient dossier-gatherers than the State due to the competitive environment in an information-driven economy.

How will this affect Philippine ICT policy? As Philippine society fully integrates into this information-driven economy, there will be a need to pass laws to protect the personal information divulged by Filipinos to ICT companies. These laws should deal with restrictions on how these ICT companies may use the personal information of individuals and liabilities for violating such. Hence, in the future, beware of ICT companies.