The National Privacy Commission sought a meeting next week with ridesharing service providers Grab and Uber to enlighten the agency on their merger, especially the provision on the processing of Filipino drivers’ and users’ data and the measures they would take to protect these data.
“As the biggest TNV provider in the Philippines after the exit of Uber, we want Grab to demonstrate that they could ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to protecting personal data and upholding the data privacy rights of its drivers and users,” NPC commissioner Raymund Liboro said.
“This sale does not affect our ongoing investigation into past Uber breaches that involved Filipino users. This investigation is continuing and a report would be out soon,” he said.
Grab and Uber assured customers of continued protection of personal data following the merger.
Liboro said Grab had committed to the commission that there would be no sharing of any user data between California-based Uber and Grab.
Uber and Grab earlier issued public statements announcing the sale of Uber’s transport network vehicle service and food delivery business in Southeast Asia to Singapore-based Grab.
“From these statements, we understand that the Uber service will no longer be available in Southeast Asia including the Philippines, from April 8, 2018. In the interim, Grab is to take Uber’s drivers onboard the Grab TNV platform,” Liboro said.
Grab said Uber users needed to download and register with Grab to use its TNV services.
Grab legal counsel John Paul Nabua assured NPC of its continued cooperation and compliance with Philippine data privacy and protection laws.
Uber users and drivers will be required to register anew with Grab to allow them to use the Grab TNV platform, he said.