THE Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) on Saturday said that the planned integration of Meta with the national ID system will be used in verifying the identities of Filipino users without giving them access to their personal information stored in the government database.
In a statement, CICC Executive Director Renato Paraiso clarified the potential privacy concerns on the proposed system, saying that it will use an application programming interface to allow Meta to ask the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) whether a particular identification or reference number matches its records, then the PSA would then return only a confirmation that the information matches, instead of providing Meta with the user’s personal information contained in the National ID database.
Paraiso added that the National ID integration will be among the matters to be tackled by a technical working group (TWG) that will bring together government agencies and Meta representatives in mid-September.
The proposed TWG with Meta will include the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the National Privacy Commission, National Telecommunications Commission, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and other concerned agencies.
The CICC is under the DICT where Paraiso concurrently serves as Undersecretary.
“We are not giving Meta access to the information contained in our database. The purpose is simply to verify, while the personal data remains with the government. We want stronger accountability online, but we also want to make sure that privacy is fully protected,” Paraiso explained.
He added that the government “remains mindful of privacy considerations as it develops stronger identity verification mechanisms to improve online child safety.”
The CICC clarified that the integration is being considered as “part of efforts to strengthen age and identity verification on Meta’s platforms,” especially Filipino users, while also addressing concerns over the exposure of children to inappropriate content and the use of anonymous accounts for malicious or fraudulent activities.
The developments follow the Philippine government’s meeting with Meta and online gaming platform Roblox on Thursday in Singapore.
