The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) welcomes the move of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to secure the commitment, cooperation, and efforts of banks, telecommunication companies, and e-commerce platforms to fight current and future smishing. It is crucial for the government and private sector to work together to protect the privacy and data of individuals amid the surge of spam text messages that are flooding many people’s SMS or Short Message Service inbox.
Smishing—phishing but in SMS form—lures people into opening a malicious link that can result into a serious data breach. It includes access to the data subject’s login credentials, bank details, and other sensitive information. Most of the current spam messages offer jobs and other rewards, usually financial in nature, that can easily mislead people. Considering the dire economic conditions and the high unemployment rate during this pandemic, many Filipinos are vulnerable to this type of scheme. The low digital literacy in our country also makes us an easy target of global syndicates that prey on people’s vulnerability.
CHR also recognizes the National Telecommunications Commission or NTC’s order to telecommunication companies to send warning messages to its subscribers about the spam text messages. We also note the action of Globe Telecom, Inc. to deactivate thousands of confirmed spam numbers and block millions of messages this year.
Aside from issuance of warnings and deactivations, we also hope that proactive and preventive efforts will be undertaken to ensure that smishing and other forms of scam will be detected and curbed before it proliferates. To complement such efforts, it is also essential that citizens are given sufficient information and education on data protection so they can protect themselves from unscrupulous schemes.
In these digital times, the online and digital protection of all are basic human rights. It is incumbent upon all concerned agencies, as well as the business sector, to ensure the right to privacy and data protection of all. ###