Privacy Policy
This Policy sets out the commitment of First Digital Finance Corporation
doing business under the names and styles of FDFC, BalikBayad, and
Billease (“FDFC”) regarding the collection, processing, and storage of
personal information and sensitive personal information (collectively
“Personal Data”) in accordance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012
(“DPA”), its implementing rules and regulations (“DPA IRR”), and other
issuances by the National Privacy Commission (“NPC”).
Much of the information we hold about you will be stored electronically
in secure data centers. Some information we hold about you will be
stored in paper files. We recognize how important it is to protect and
manage the information you share with us. We use a range of physical and
electronic security measures to protect the security of personal
information we hold. In addition, we use computer safeguards such as
firewalls and data encryption, we enforce physical access controls to
our office and files, and we only authorize access to those employees
who require it to fulfill their job responsibilities.
Our security systems meet or exceed industry standards and we are
constantly monitoring internet developments to ensure our systems evolve
as required.
We collect information about you in a number of ways:
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Information you provide to us through our websites and applications;
- Information you provide through communications with us;
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Information you have authorized us to collect through our
applications such as your photograph or facial features obtained via
access to your computer/smartphone camera or photo gallery and your
phone, email, or social media contact lists and metadata for the
purpose of KYC and preventing fraud;
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Information you have authorized us to collect from various services
and networks, including financial institutions, financing companies,
lenders, your employer (for auto-debit or other auto-deduction
mechanisms) whether private or public, telecommunication companies
(such as Globe Telecom, Inc., Smart Communications, Inc., PLDT,
Inc., Sun Cellular/Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc.), utility
companies (such as Meralco/Manila Electric Company, Maynilad Water
Services, Inc., Manila Water Company, Inc.), government agencies
(such as SSS, GSIS, NSO, BIR), credit bureaus (such as the CIC,
NFIS), remittance companies (such as Palawan Express, Cebuana
Lhuillier), insurance providers (such Sun Life Grepa Financial,
Inc., Insular Life), financial service providers (such as CC Mobile
Financial Services Philippines, GCash/G-Xchange, Inc., PayMaya
Philippines, Inc.) and other service providers, online or otherwise;
and
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Information from outside sources such as credit bureaus and customer
service providers to help us with customer verification and
credit-related decisions.
In addition to the personal and financial information you submit (or
we collect), we may collect information about your computer and
smartphone, including, where available, your IP address, operating
system and browser type, – for the purposes of system and loan
administration and product improvement.
We may also record and/or monitor calls for quality checks and staff
training. Such recordings may also be used to help us combat fraud.
To register with us you must be 18 years of age or older. Minors are
strictly forbidden from using the service.
Information we hold:
We will hold and use the following details about you:
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your name, address, phone numbers, email address, date of birth,
employment and banking and financial details;
- demographic and lifestyle information;
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information we receive when making a decision about you, your loan
or application (including information collected from credit bureaus
or other sources);
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details of the loans you have and have had with us and all
transactions;
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details of when you contact us and when we contact you;
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mobile device data (such as SIM, IMEI, or other device identifiers,
type of device, device operating system, device settings, user
account information for your mobile device or Google PlayStore
account, information about mobile network provider, device
specifications), Location data (such as mobile device location, time
zone setting); phone data (such as contact lists and metadata, SMS
metadata, types and nature of mobile applications found on your
mobile device); mobile app usage data (such as traffic volume,
mobile app usage) and telecommunications usage data or “telco usage
score”;
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as well as any other information which we reasonably need to operate
your account, make decisions about you or fulfill our regulatory
obligations.
We may keep details of any phone number(s) that you call us from and use
them to contact you.
References to personal information include all of the information above
whether obtained from you, from a credit bureau, from the internet or
from any other source.
Information we share:
We will keep your personal information confidential and only share it
with others for the purposes explained in this policy. We have trusted
relationships with carefully selected third parties who perform services
on our behalf. All service providers are bound by contract to maintain
the security of your personal information and to use it only as
permitted by us.
We may share information about you:
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with any firm, organization or person we use to help us operate our
lending business for the purpose of conducting KYC, determination of
credit worthiness, fraud prevention, and to collect payments and
recover debts or to provide a service on our behalf;
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with any firm, organization or person who provides us with products or
services or who we provide products and services to for the purpose of
providing such products and performing such services;
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with any person who has told us and who we reasonably believe to be
your parent, carer or helper, when proof is presented that you are
unable to handle your own affairs because of mental incapacity or
other similar issues for the purpose of proper handling of said
affairs;
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with any payment system we may use for the purpose of disbursement of
loan proceeds and payment of loans;
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with any Third Party Entities (“Partners”) engaged by the Lender such
as the Borrower’s employer (for auto-debit or other auto-deduction
mechanisms) whether private or public, telecommunication companies
(such as Globe Telecom, Inc., Smart Communications, Inc., PLDT, Inc.,
Sun Cellular/Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc.), utility companies
(such as Meralco/Manila Electric Company, Maynilad Water Services,
Inc., Manila Water Company, Inc.), government agencies (such as SSS,
GSIS, NSO, BIR), credit bureaus (such as the CIC, NFIS), remittance
companies (such as Palawan Express, Cebuana Lhuillier), insurance
providers (such Sun Life Grepa Financial, Inc., Insular Life),
financial service providers (such as CC Mobile Financial Services
Philippines, GCash/G-Xchange, Inc., PayMaya Philippines, Inc.) for the
purpose of (i) determination of creditworthiness, conducting all the
necessary background checks that may include credit scoring and
investigation, and data analytics; (ii) data analytics, statistical
analysis and demographics, business development purposes (such as
improvement of the websites, mobile applications, and the Lender’s
credit scoring algorithm/s, the creation of effective service delivery
and payment collection strategies, improving customer experience and
customer assistance), and the direct marketing of the Lender’s
existing and prospective financial services as well as the products
and services of its Partners; (iii) for fraud detection,
investigation, and prevention; (iv) for all phases of provisioning the
products and services that the Borrower may apply for including
evaluation of loan applications, its automated processing, complying
with eKYC (Know Your Customer) regulations required by the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the
Anti-Money Laundering Council, credit verification, credit scoring,
and payment collection.
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with any of our lenders, including but not limited to any local or
foreign financial institutions, or any agent, assignee or transferee
of any such lenders, in connection with any loan or credit facilities
that we may obtain from any such lenders, for purposes that may
include but are not limited to (i) the conduct of credit assessment on
us or our business, (ii) providing as collateral our receivables from
you and our rights under our contracts with you, (iii) registration of
the security interest constituted in favor of any such lender or any
other secured party with any registry maintained by a government body,
including but not limited to the Personal Property Security Registry
administered by the Land Registration Authority, (iv) any audit,
inspection or monitoring that may be conducted by any such lender or
any other secured party or in connection with any regulatory
obligation of any such lender, (v) loan and/or collateral
administration, and/or (vi) enforcement of any security interest given
to any of such lenders or secured parties. For avoidance of doubt,
your sensitive personal information is among the information that may
be shared pursuant to this paragraph;
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with any person to whom we sell or transfer (or enter into
negotiations to sell or transfer) our business or any of our rights or
obligations under any agreement we may have with you, or transfers
arising out of or in connection with the enforcement by any lender or
security agent of security interests constituted in their favor in
accordance with relevant agreements or applicable law. If the transfer
or sale goes ahead, which may also occur in the exercise of a third
party’s security interests referred to in the preceding paragraph and
this paragraph, the transferee or purchaser may use your personal
information and/or sensitive personal information in the same way as
us;
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certain authorities in order to detect and prevent terrorism
(including to authorities outside the Philippines);
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with regulatory agencies and government authorities (including but not
limited to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bangko Sentral
ng Pilipinas, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the National Bureau of
Investigation, the National Privacy Commission, and the Office of the
Ombudsman), including those overseas, where we are requested by them
to do so;
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with credit bureaus or any similar organization which provides a
centralized application matching service that collects information
from and about mortgage and/or credit applications, for the purpose of
preventing and detecting fraud. We may also provide information to
third parties to help them to make decisions about whether to lend to
you, allow you extended payment terms or otherwise do business with
you.
How we use your information
We will use your information to:
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search credit bureaus’ records (including information from overseas);
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make, or assist in making, credit decisions about you, assess lending
and insurance risks and to check the details that you have let us and
others have;
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operate and manage your account and manage any application, agreement
or correspondence you may have with us;
- carry out, monitor and analyze our business;
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contact you by email, SMS, letter, telephone or in any other way about
our products and services, unless you tell us that you prefer not to
receive marketing;
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identify, prevent, detect or tackle fraud, money laundering, terrorism
and other crimes;
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form a view of you as an individual and to identify, develop or
improve products, that may be of interest to you;
- carry out market research, business and statistical analysis;
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provide information to independent external bodies such as
governmental departments and agencies, universities and similar to
carry out research;
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carry out audits;
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perform other administrative and operational purposes including the
testing of systems;
- trace your whereabouts;
- recover any debt you owe us; and
- comply with our regulatory and contractual obligations.
Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give your
permission or where we are permitted to do so by law or it is in the
public interest to disclose the information or is otherwise permitted
under Philippine law.
When you apply for a loan from us, we will check the following records
about you (and others where applicable):
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our own, including information and records you supplied to us or
authorized us to collect;
- those at credit bureaus;
Whether or not your application is successful, when credit bureaus
receive a search from us, they will place a search footprint on your
credit file that may be seen by other lenders. Large numbers of
applications within a short time period may affect your ability to
obtain credit. This is applicable whether you have been accepted or
declined.
The credit bureaus supply us with both public information and shared
credit and fraud prevention information including information about
previous applications and the conduct of your accounts.
We may also make periodic searches at credit bureaus to manage our
relationship with you.
Information provided by you on our applications will be sent to credit
bureaus and will be recorded by them. We and other organizations may
access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering
and credit bureaus may use your information for statistical analysis.
Information held by credit bureaus will be disclosed to us and to other
organizations in order to (for example):
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prevent fraud and money laundering and to check and assess
applications for credit, credit related or other facilities;
- recover debts that you owe and trace your whereabouts;
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manage credit accounts and other facilities and decide appropriate
credit limits;
- verify your identity;
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make decisions on credit and other facilities for you, your financial
associate (s), members of your household or your business;
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check details on proposals and claims for all types of insurance; and
- check details of job applicants and employees.
When you borrow from us, we will give details of your loan and how you
manage it to the credit bureaus. If you borrow and do not repay in full
and on time, the credit bureaus will record the outstanding debt and, in
some cases, the length of time that the debt remains outstanding; other
organizations may see these updates and this may affect your ability to
obtain credit in the future.
If you fall behind with your payments and a full payment or satisfactory
proposal is not received, then a default notice may be recorded with the
credit bureaus. Any records shared with credit bureaus will remain on
file for a retention period after your account is closed, whether any
outstanding sums have been settled by you or as following a default.
If you give us false or inaccurate information and we have reasonable
grounds to suspect fraud or we identify fraud, we may record this and
may also pass this information to organizations involved in crime and
fraud prevention including law enforcement agencies who may then access
this information.
We and other organizations may access and use the information recorded
by fraud prevention agencies from other countries.
We will hold your personal data and records for as long as necessary for
the fulfillment of the above-stated purposes and uses, or for the
establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, or for legitimate
business purposes, or as may be provided by law.
In the event that your personal data are no longer required to be
retained, such data will be disposed or discarded in a secure manner
that would prevent further processing, unauthorized access, or
disclosure to any other party or the public, or that would prejudice
your interests.
Under the DPA, you have the following rights as a data subject:
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You have the right to indicate your refusal to the collection and
processing of your personal data. You also have the right to be
informed and to withhold your consent to further processing in case
there are any changes or amendments to information given to you. Once
you have notified us of the withholding of your consent, further
processing of your personal data will no longer be done, unless (i)
the processing is required pursuant to a subpoena, lawful order, or as
required by law; or (ii) the collection and processing is pursuant to
any lawful criteria indicated under the terms of this Policy.
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You have the right to reasonable access to your personal data.
Furthermore, you have the right to limit and prevent disclosure of
your personal data, to be provided with the identity of the recipients
of your personal data that may have been shared by us with third
parties, and to receive notification of any possible breaches of your
personal data.
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You may also correct or remove any information that you think is
inaccurate. You have the right to dispute any inaccuracy or error in
your personal data. You may request for the correction or removal of
any inaccuracy or error in your personal data by logging into your
account or making a formal request with our Data Privacy Officer.
- You have the right to the destruction of your personal data;
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You have the right to be indemnified for any damages sustained due to
inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained, or
unauthorized use of personal information;
- You have the right to lodge a complaint with the NPC.
If you would like to make any request in relation to your rights as a
data subject, please contact our Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) with
the contact details listed below. Please note that the exercise of some
of your rights as a data subject is subject to review and may result in
the denial of any application currently pending.
Our site may contain links to third party websites. If you follow a link
to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own
terms and privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility
or liability for them.
Our Web site includes Social Media Features such as the Facebook Like
button. These Features may collect your IP address, which pages you are
visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to
function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted
by a third party or hosted on our Site. Your interactions with these
Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time (without
notice to you) that are necessary for our business requirements or the
law. We encourage you to visit this page from time to time to ensure you
have read our most current Privacy Policy.
The Data Protection Officer (DPO) is the individual principally
responsible for ensuring that FDFC complies with all applicable laws and
regulations for the protection of data privacy and security. The DPO is
likewise responsible for the supervision and enforcement of this Policy.
You may reach the DPO via the following contact information:
Data Protection Officer
FIRST DIGITAL FINANCE CORPORATION
9th Floor T.M. Kalaw Center Building,
667 T.M. Kalaw Ave., Ermita, Manila
Tel. No. (02)53203051
email add.: [email protected]
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or
if you have any complaints on our use of your personal information,
please email us at
[email protected] .