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MANILA - The National Privacy Commission said Wednesday it would look into local contact tracing applications for COVID-19 following reports that some local governments have required residents to download these apps.

The role of local governments is essential in the fight against the pandemic but they cannot require downloading of apps under a "blanket authority," NPC chair Raymund Liboro said.

"Dapat hindi mandatory ang digital apps...If you are doing contact tracing maaaring gumamit ka ng ibang paraan," NPC chair Liboro told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(Digital apps should not be mandatory...If you are doing contact tracing you may use other means.)

"Para obligahin ang isang tao na mag-avail o maaaring may epekto sa kanya na di siya makaka-avail ng serbisyo, 'yan po ay ika nga walang basehan at hindi iyan ine-encourage. Di ka dapat ma-deprive dahil wala kang app."

(To obligate a person to download the app in order to avail services has no basis and is not encouraged. The public should not be deprived if they do not have an app.)

Contact tracing apps should collect only necessary data, which should be timebound, or the period of its storage should be determined, Liboro said.

"Nung nagsimula itong pandemic, sinimplehan lang namin ang aming mensahe (When this pandemic began, we simplified our message): Collect what is the minimum necessary, disclose only to the proper authority," he said.

Users should be given the choice to opt out and they must be able to easily contact the app's Data Protection Officer, he added.

The commission is "not a gatekeeper" of digital apps, Liboro said as he urged firms and local governments to be responsible in launching contact tracing apps.

The body said it has forwarded its review of StaySafe, the contact tracing app used by government, to the health department. The NPC recommended improvements to the app, Liboro said.

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