The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Negros Oriental assured the public of secured data privacy to prevent unlawful and unauthorized access to personal information.

Engineer Jose Ariel Fortuito, chief statistical analyst and provincial head of PSA-Negros Oriental, said in a Kapihan forum that the joint Population Census (PopCen)-Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) is a sound data management program utilizing advanced technology to collect and process data for government use.

“Our data gathering for the CBMS and census is protected by law, particularly by the Data Privacy Act to ensure that a person’s privacy is being protected,” Fortuito said.

The PopCen-CBMS will be conducted from July 15 to September 16, and will profile household and institutional populations to update the social registry of the country.

He added that the government is instituting strict security measures to prevent data leakage, loss or theft.

Some methods to manage a security risk include geotagging, the use of a specific VPN (Virtual Private Network) solely for CBMS, and event tracking apps installed on the tablets and cellphones issued to field enumerators, among others.

Fortuito appealed to the public for cooperation and to disclose the correct information, saying this would help the government provide the necessary data for future use in government planning, programs and projects and even the giving of “ayuda” or assistance.

Territorial boundaries

Meanwhile, in the same forum, barangay officials and residents called on the government to resolve the perennial problem of territorial boundaries between villages, towns and cities.

They noted that conflicting geographical boundaries often result in confusion among their constituents.

Fortuito admitted that this problem has not yet been resolved and the PSA will be basing its census and CBMS on the previous maps and geotagging.

Adjustments will be made once these boundary conflicts are resolved, he added. (PNA)