After the Society of Information Technology Students (SITS) week, I was already looking forward to the upcoming face-to-face class since I had been learning inside my room for the last two years because of the pandemic. However, I was grateful for that span of time since it helped my parents lessen their daily expenses in terms of school fees, allowances, and dormitories since my two siblings and I were taking undergraduate courses in different Universities. The first thing I learned was, leaving your hometown, your parents and their freshly cooked meals, and your best friends is one of the most crucial parts of the lessons learning - leaving everything behind to pursue the new beginning of discernment.

As days went by, face-to-face classes truly surprised me; Riding a jeep for me is very challenging. Waiting for a jeep from 7:00 AM for my 8:30 AM class in the morning, and in the afternoon, I usually wait for a tremendous amount of time to ride a jeep to go home to my sister's apartment after a 5:30 PM class. I was living my life differently compared to when I was in Senior High School; I usually went to my school for 10 minutes of walking. Truly learning is taking a single step outside your comfort zone. Days during face-to-face classes were almost the same; it was tiring and fun. 

On the last day of my first week in a face-to-face class, I was very excited to meet some of the few mentioned seasoned instructors that my college was proud of, which were already mentioned to me by my older sister since she was once a student of these instructors. 

I was shocked; my emotions were mixed-up. The last day of my first week of a face-to-face class was my first time being kicked out of a class discussion for not wearing a uniform. I was neither sad nor happy since I saw 90% of the class being kicked out for the same reason. Fortunately, our Instructor gave us consideration and even allowed us to admit to his class for exactly one condition - to show our hidden talents. Though I was not confident to show my hidden talent, I had no choice. I sang one of my father's favorite songs, Moon River, by Frank Sinatra. Luckily, I was able to attain my Instructor's approval and got admitted to his class. With that opportunity, I was able to see my classmates' hidden talents, which are shown occasionally. Most of them also sang their favorite song, some danced, and some read poems from their favorite writers - all of them also got admitted to my Instructor's class discussion. After that very entertaining talent showcase, as I observed, everyone was attentively listening to my Instructor and had a good laugh and real-life learning. 

With that, learning is the courage to take a single step to show everyone that it is normal not to be confident at first. Learning is enjoying and listening to others. And learning and growth are continuous processes, and it is okay to take the path of lifelong learning.

Before our professor starts his discussion, he gave a group activity - a rapport, in which he transformed the traditional formation of groupings into U shape form, which is more convenient for a group discussion setting. He then instructed everyone to evaluate and criticize our university enrollment process, both online and physical set-up. Without a doubt, all of my group members were participative, everyone shared their observations and opinions regarding the enrollment process. All of us shared the same thought - sharing the pros and cons of the online and offline enrollment process. In online enrollment, our group concluded that it is more flexible and convenient compared to physical, aside from no queuing in line, it saves a lot of effort and energy - with just a click of submit button, you will just wait to be enrolled. Though our group has identified several weaknesses in an online enrollment process, it is more vulnerable in hacking and breaches. However, the physical enrollment process was not also perfect. Aside from the mentioned flaws, you can guarantee that you have processed your enrollment securely. Although both online and physical enrollment was being carefully evaluated, especially its capacity for data disposal. 

After the rapport, several insights were discussed from the different groups, which were all unique and new to me. It widens my understanding and the necessary steps in handling data, whether it is online or physical enrollment. As Confucious once said, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”. This made me think about how individual perception and knowledge contribute to someone’s growth and development - especially in the field of Information Technology. 

After that activity, our professor starts discussing his lesson - specifically in the field of data privacy and data security. Our professor even provided some of the threats he observed during the physical enrollment procedure. Several pieces of evidence related to our activity were shown, such as the unnecessary data being collected, and publicly posting records of students without students' consent. These several factors might lead to students’ information being vulnerable to unauthorized individuals and might be used for exploitation. 

With this, I realized that, as an Information Technology student, several concerns and factors regarding data privacy and security should be considered, and taking responsibility for the individual’s data and information that are being collected.

 

To cut the silence, our professor explained that among the things that we have, our data is the most expensive possession a person can have. He emphasized that losing our personal data may result in unauthorized access, leading to the theft of money in our bank accounts or illegal transactions, which we may not even be aware of.

 

During the lecture, our professor shared a concern raised by a student who discovered that their personal information – such as their unique identification number, name, and address, was posted on the university website without their permission. Fortunately, the issue was reported and addressed immediately. However, this incident left me wondering about cases that go unnoticed and who is liable for their effects.

 

Fortunately, in the next slides, our professor introduced us to an existing law in the Philippines that serves as the pillar of the rights of data privacy and security – the Data Privacy Act of 2012, also known as Republic Act 10173. This act aims to protect individual personal data in the Information and Communication systems, particularly in the areas of government and private sector, wherein RA 10173 is reliant on the National Privacy Commission (NPC) and its other purposes. The Data Privacy Act of 2012 has the intention of safeguarding individuals' personal data and information through strict actions, as the act has developed a trustworthy National Privacy Commission (NPC) responsible for ensuring the quality of protection it can provide to individual data and information.

After hearing the purpose of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, as a student, it is important to comprehend the importance of data privacy – as to me, it enhances my personal growth and development as a student studying data privacy and security in the field of Information Technology. Also, it must be practiced by every individual – in view of the fact that in this era of digitalization, information can be accessed effortlessly when data are not well protected, such as no strict restrictions from users, and hacking and data breaches are rampant. For this reason, we should start taking action and acknowledging the importance of data privacy and security.

On that day, the lecture prepared by our professor on data privacy and the value of personal data has been very insightful and thought-provoking for me. As individuals, we must recognize the significance of data privacy and take necessary measures to protect our personal information. Also, we must be very thankful for the existence of laws such as the Data Privacy Act of 2012 which provides us with a sense of security, knowing that our personal information is safeguarded from any unauthorized access. 

 During our fourth meeting with our data privacy professor, before he began his class presentation, he promised that we will be going to end our class discussion with him earlier to respect valentine's day.  Well, as a student dismissed earlier from the class discussion is another type of happiness - especially on valentine's day.  On that day, I can clearly see students showing their widest smiles and eyes filled with happiness.  After that announcement, our professor remembers something, a promise he was about to fulfill to the whole class. A promise he made at the end of his third discussion, which to give a glimpse of our learning evidence by discussing our course syllabus. As a student, the course syllabus is one of the essential guides for knowing what to comply with to finish the subject.

 

As our professor opens the presentation, he asked everyone in his class what is the vision, mission, goals, and core values of the university -- some answered but not as clearly as our professor expected. He then humbly taught us the correct answers. Though, as a student, it is vital for us to understand these ideas and to always remember the university's vision, mission, goals, and core values – to become world-class graduates that can compete in any form of excellence.

 

Afterward, our professor presented the course three learning evidences that we will be complying with to pass the subject. In his learning evidence 1, he requires everyone to write a blog containing five entries – which is a student reflection and takeaways as they entered in our professor's class discussion. The second learning evidence is to create an infographic containing a social media policy statement which will be printed and displayed on our college bulletin board. And lastly, our third learning evidence is to draft a data privacy and security practices manual for our local council. These mentioned learning evidences we needed to comply with our professor not only to provide a solid foundation for testing our understanding in his discussion but also to share our learnings and takeaways in his subject with other people – making them aware of what data privacy and security is.

 

 With this, as our class discussion was about to end I realized something. I realized that learning something is like sharing your favorite food, letting them taste the knowledge of your learnings and takeaways from other people's experiences and wisdom. It's up to other people if they will devour the food of knowledge being shared with them.

 

On that day, as our professor promised, he finished the class discussion thirty minutes earlier and wished everyone to have a happy valentine's day.

There was this adage saying that “the future is unpredictable and inevitable” this means that everything upheld in the next few days, months, and years is uncertain – just in the field of technology – it keeps on evolving at a fast pace. However, having the concept of a centralized identification number might bring positive effects when it is being properly handled or might bring negative effects – just like the video presentation was all about. 

As a student studying data privacy and security, this is alarming – not just because it in invades data privacy and security, but because it creates a system that has the potential to control and manipulate its people when unproperly handled. Though, I admit that having a centralized identification card would lessen the crime we face today, track medical records in terms of the dos and don’ts foods of a customer, lessen cyber-related crime, and have the capability to easily identify a person on his records. But, what if, these records will be hacked? targeted by unknown authorizations? being manipulated, and used for illegal transactions? Who is to blame? The registered users who agreed upon the consensus of the centralized identification number or the people who were aiming for a safe environment for its people?  Who is responsible for the downfall? 

I guess, having a chance to answer this question, both will be liable for its downfall—though I would not recommend having a centralized identification number – it is like living a life with no purpose and leisure. Moreover, having a centralized identification number can easily invade a person's identity and information, causing multiple series of critical effects on a particular person. As quoted by Clive Humby, “data is the new oil” – which means that a person's data is more valuable than money. If a person's data is being hacked and his data is being compromised by a hacker, an unimaginable disaster might happen. As quoted by our professor, “collect only those data that you can protect” which gives me a perception of – fill-up what is needed and not what is being asked and to keep widening my awareness in sharing my information. 

With this, on the last day of our class lecture – the video presentation provided by our professor in data privacy and security surely stir-up my understanding and changes my perception of how we perceive consent, reading terms and conditions, protecting personal information, and not oversharing data to someone.