8Layer was invited to attend the Foundation Media Alternatives (FMA) & Global Partners Digital’s Tech SME’s Users First Consultation Workshop at Marco Polo Hotel, Ortigas last July 25, 2019. The workshop entitled “How to Respect Privacy & Free Expression as a Tech SME in the Philippines was participated by various organizations both here and in other asia pacific region.

The workshop was aim to convene Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and Tech SMEs and businesses to start a discussion on business and human rights and how they can strengthen their knowledge and understanding on freedom of expression and privacy as it is applied and use in the digital environment. It also aimed to increase level of commitment to the United Nation Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Photo taken by: Foundation for Media Alternatives

It was a whole day event that was attended by representatives from both the CSO and tech industry. Executive Directors of FMA and Global Partners Digital, Ms Lisa Garcia and Charles Bradley gave their welcome remarks respectively. Topics about Human Rights in the Digital Environment and issues related to privacy and freedom of expression, the current state of National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in the Philippines were discussed in the morning session. Then groups were formed for exercises on identifying key issues in the national context and developing a canvas.

In the afternoon, Atty. Jamael Jacob discussed about Data Privacy and Free Expression; followed by Atty. Numeriano Hernandez Jr., Executive Assistant of National Privacy Commision (NPC) on How to respect privacy and Free Expression. The last speaker was Charles Bradley talking about Assessing privacy and free expression in the business.

The workshop was very informative and most of the audience were very eager to ask more questions on the roadmap of NPC and how they can help the companies and the general public to be more knowledgeable about data privacy and freedom of expression. The event ended with a group activity on the best practices of tech companies in handling data of their customers. Everyone participated and gave their insights on improving the practices and recommended solutions that may be useful both for the business and the public.

8Layer would like to congratulate FMA and Global Partners Digital for the successful event and we will always be supportive of these type of initiatives.