SUPREME COURT WEBSITE PRIVACY NOTICE (Essential Cookie Policy)

Statement of Commitment to Data Privacy and Security

The Supreme Court of the Philippines respects your privacy, and your data privacy rights, as well as employs reasonable measures to protect your personal data in accordance with Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA), its Implementing Rules and Regulations, and the various issuances of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) (collectively, the Data Privacy Regulations).

Brief Service Description and its General Purpose

Use of the Supreme Court Website

The Supreme Court website serves as the online repository of Supreme Court information, references, and resources accessible to the public. By agreeing to use the Supreme Court website, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure, processing, and storage of your personal data to enable us to monitor the website’s engagement.

What personal data do we collect?

The following personal data are collected by WordPress Statistics, a third-party party service, to enable us to monitor the website’s performance through its engagement with visitors:

• Browser
• City
• Country
• Device brand
• Device category
• Device model
• Language
• Operating System
• OS Version
• Platform

For further understanding, please see brief discussion on WordPress Statistics below.

Why do we collect your personal data?

The data collected by WordPress Statistics shall be used to enable us to monitor the website’s performance through its engagement with visitors.

How do we process your personal data?

Personal data by WordPress Statistics collected shall be processed for purposes of determining the profile of SC website users for reference in helping the Supreme Court in effectively managing the SC website as well as in the SC’s dissemination of information to the public.

Where you have provided us with your personal data, you agree to our collection, use, disclosure, storage, and other processing of your personal data for the purposes and in the manner set forth in this Privacy Notice.

WordPress Statistics

The Supreme Court website uses a third-party website, WordPress Statistics, to gather anonymous statistical information from site visitors and analyze the web traffic data for us. Such data is not shared with any other party. The SC website uses cookies based on the following traffic data:

• Browser
• City
• Country
• Device brand
• Device category
• Device model
• Language
• Operating System
• OS Version
• Platform

How do we protect your personal data?

The foregoing personal data, which are encrypted, shall be captured, stored, and retrieved by the Supreme Court and its offices solely for the specific purposes stated in the Privacy Notice, i.e., for reference in helping the Supreme Court in effectively managing the SC website and for proper processing of queries/requests and contacting the data subject to respond to the queries/requests. The data shall be processed and stored with utmost security and confidentiality.

Only authorized website administrators of the Supreme Court have access to the collected data stored and hosted in the Supreme Court servers, which in turn is subject to strict security protocols.

How long will we keep your personal data?

The collected personal data shall be stored in the Supreme Court server. The Supreme Court Management Information System Office (MISO) maintains the database for the transmission of the personal data. Only the administrators of the SC website, MISO, and authorized offices shall have access to such data. Such personal data shall not be shared with unauthorized persons.

Personal data collected by WordPress Statistics shall be retained for a period of one year. For exceptional circumstances, the data may be retained for as long as needed in the performance of the functions of the Supreme Court and its offices.

Under the Data Privacy Regulations, retention of personal data shall only be for as long as necessary:

(a) for the fulfillment of the declared, specified, and legitimate purpose, or when the processing relevant to the purpose has been terminated;

(b) for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims; or

(c) for legitimate business purposes, which must be consistent with standards followed by the applicable industry or approved by appropriate government agency.

However, personal data originally collected for a declared, specified, or legitimate purpose may be processed further for historical, statistical, or scientific purposes, and, in cases laid down in law, may be stored for longer periods, subject to implementation of the appropriate organizational, physical, and technical security measures.

In all cases, your personal data will be stored in a secure manner to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

What are your rights as a data subject?

Under the Data Privacy Regulations, you are entitled to the following rights as data subject in relation to the personal data collected by WordPress Statistics. These rights may be exercised at your discretion:

(a) The right to be informed

You have the right to be informed whether personal data pertaining to you, obtained through the WordPress Statistics, shall be, are being or have been processed.

(b) The right to access

Under the DPA, individuals can request access to any of their personal data (obtained either through the WordPress Statistics), held by the Supreme Court, subject to certain restrictions. Any such request should be addressed to the Data Protection Officer.

(c) The right to object

You have a right to object to the processing of your personal data, including processing for direct marketing, automated processing, or profiling.

(d) The right to erasure or blocking

You have the right to suspend, withdraw or order the blocking, removal, or destruction of your personal data from the Supreme Court’s system as obtained either through WordPress Statistics, subject to the provisions of the Data Privacy Regulations.

(e) The right to damages

You have the right to be indemnified for any damages sustained due to inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained, or unauthorized use of personal data, considering any violation of your rights and freedoms as data subject.

(f) The right to file a complaint before the National Privacy Commission (NPC)

If you feel that your rights have been violated or your personal data has been misused, maliciously disclosed, or improperly disposed of, you have the right to file a complaint before the NPC.

(g) The right to rectification

You have the right to dispute any inaccuracy or error in your personal data and have the Supreme Court correct it immediately, unless the request is vexatious or unreasonable.

(h) The right to data portability

You have the right to obtain a copy of your data in an electronic or structure format that is commonly used and allows for further use by the data subject.

Changes to our Privacy Notice:

This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time. If material changes are required, any revisions shall be published on the Supreme Court website under the News and Announcements page for your immediate guidance. Therefore, we encourage you to review this Privacy Notice periodically so that you are up to date on our most current policies and practices. This Privacy Notice was last updated on August 30, 2023.

How do you contact us?

If you have any privacy concerns or questions about your data privacy rights or our Privacy Notice, please contact us through:

JUDICIARY’S DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

Supreme Court of the Philippines

Padre Faura St., Ermita, Manila Philippines 1000

+63 3 8552 9532

dataprivacy.sc@judiciary.gov.ph