Three
days ago Pinoy Ako blogger the Inquirer’s 2017 Filipino of the Year,Jover
Laurio filed a civil complaint before a Makati Regional Trial Court against Rey
Joseph Nieto and Allantroy Rogando Sasot for “violation of the Data
Privacy Act of 2012, as well as pertinent provisions of the Civil Code with
respect to breaches of the right to privacy and the right to free speech.”
In
her complaint she alleges that “Nieto and Sasot, each in their own individual
capacities, maliciously and with ill intent, collected, recorded, consolidated,
and published, without authorization, Laurio’s sensitive personal information”
including her full name, user credentials for PAB, and the law school where
Laurio is enrolled. Laurio is asking the court as a way of reparation a fee
amounting to P2,150,000 in nominal, moral and exemplary damages, as well as
attorney’s fees and complaint filing costs. *
 |
| Ms. Jovie Laurio and Ms. Sass Rogando Sasot (photo credit to owner) |
And
because of that it would seem Jovie Laurio is the innocent victim. Right?....
or wrong?
The
Manila Times resident columnist Sass
Rogando Sasot, in her column published today ( March 15, 2018) titled “Will Bam Aquino investigate this threat to
the BPO industry?” she discusses a side of Jovie Laurio that would make a clear
picture that she is not that innocent after all or in lay man’s term “pabebe.”
For purposes of full understanding and clarity ,we have quoted in full the whole article written by Ms Sasot for the convenience and knowledge of our reading public.
For purposes of full understanding and clarity ,we have quoted in full the whole article written by Ms Sasot for the convenience and knowledge of our reading public.
SEN. Bam Aquino has
identified three threats to the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in
our country: artificial intelligence; economic policy of source countries; and
the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN). As chairman of the
Senate’s committee on science and technology, Aquino moved to probe these
threats. He should add another one to the list: the threat posed by the likes
of Maria Josephina Verginia Natural Lauria (a.k.a. Jover Laurio) to the
integrity of the BPO industry.
The Inquirer’s 2017
Filipino of the Year, Jover Laurio formerly worked at the Philippine BPO office
of Credit Corp Group, Australia’s largest company specializing in debt purchase
and debt collection, as a CRM specialist. According to Laurio’s LinkedIn
profile, she started working there in 2011. She resigned recently. *
On May 29, 2016, Laurio,
a campaign volunteer of the Liberal Party, had the following tweeter
conversation with a Filipino blogger who goes by the name benign0 of Get Real
Philippines. Benign0 is an Australian resident and a known critic of the Aquino
administration and the Liberal Party.
missjover: @benigno Bat
pala umalis kayo sa J______? Malayo sa work? Sabagay ok yung nalipatan niya,
kasi may garage kayong sarili.
benign0: @missjover Tsk tsk…Secondhand info in
the hands of small minds…
missjover: @benign0 hahaha secondhand info? You
sure? Hahaha I can give the exact one if you want.
I wrote an open letter about this in my Facebook
page (@forthemotherlandph). In response, without denying the threat, Laurio
gave the lame defense that she “never encountered an account named Benigno.”
Certainly, she wouldn’t encounter the name “benign0” as it’s a pseudonym.
However, benign0’s real name was already known, as he had been outed earlier by
Liberal Party supporters, so Laurio could have just easily accessed his
information from the Credit Corp Group’s database.
Laurio further asked me what information she
released and what rule did she breach. Well, she knew where benign0 lived
before, where he moved, and even the detail that his new house had a garage!
How could she have known that? *
Narrating what happened in May 2016, benign0
wrote in his blog about the implications of Laurio’s actions:
“[Laurio] had somehow obtained about [sic]my
private residence and even telephone number to issue threats against me.
Indeed, the information seems to have been shared with many of her followers
and allies in social media as the information was presented to me as part of
veiled threats many times over the years.”
Perhaps it wasn’t clear to Laurio that what she
did to benign0 compromised the integrity of Credit Corp Group by simply
threatening an Australian resident that she would release his “exact” info
while she had access to confidential information of Australian residents!
On March 14, I wrote an open letter to Credit
Corp Group, asking them to investigate a possible breach committed by their
former employer. The open letter got viral fast. Within hours, Adam Carpenter,
the head of Legal and Compliance Credit Corp. Group, contacted me.
“Good afternoon Sass, It has been brought to our
attention that you have recently made some posts on social media in relation to
an alleged privacy breach by a former Credit Corp employee. Credit Corp takes
its obligations under the Privacy Act seriously and it is our practice to
robustly investigate any allegations of misconduct. It appears from the content
of your post, that you may have some information that would assist us in
investigating the matter.”
Immediately, I connected Mr. Carpenter to the
person behind benign0. I applaud Credit Corp Group’s prompt action. What is
needed now is for Aquino to take parallel action to save the integrity of the
BPO industry from the likes of Laurio, who could use their access to
confidential information to threaten their political opponents. *
What Laurio did to benign0 is the very
definition of weaponization of information. It’s political blackmail using
confidential information she was entrusted by Credit Corp Group to treat with
the highest standard of confidentiality. The mere fact that she was threatening
an Australian resident that she would release his “exact” information while she
had access to confidential information of Australian residents is already
alarming. The threat itself compromised the integrity of Credit Corp Group.
What Laurio did was demonstrate how the BPOs’
access to confidential information could be used as a leverage against
political opponents. Will Aquino have the political will to investigate the full
implications for the BPO industry of the nefarious act of one of their campaign
volunteers? If Credit Corp Group takes the issue seriously to warrant an
investigation, shouldn’t Aquino move to take action to address this threat?
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