The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has given the developer of the StaySafe.PH within 30 days to transfer to the Department of Health’s own system all the data it collected from its contact tracing of individuals who have exposure to coronavirus disease patients, Malacañang said Thursday.

The IATF has made the directive to Multisys Technology Corporation, a company partly owned by telco giant PLDT Inc. and developer of StaySafe.PH application following criticisms that it is not very effective and on concern about the possible misuse of the data it collected.

In a virtual press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the IATF members, in a meeting on Wednesday, agreed the terms of the use and management of StaySafe.PH application to further strengthen compliance with relevant cybersecurity, data privacy, and confidentiality laws as recommended by the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Privacy Commission

“The function of StaySafe.PH application shall be limited to collection of data while, on the other hand, all data collected shall be stored in DOH’s Covid-Kaya system,” IATF said in Resolution No. 45.

This should be contained in a memorandum of agreement between the Multisys and the DOH regarding the “donation and use of StaySafe.PH application which shall include the source code, all data, data ownership, and intellectual property involved of the former to the latter,” it said.

“As part of donation, all data currently in the database of StaySafe.PH shall be migrated to Covid-Kaya,” the IATF said.

The task force has given Multisys 30 days from June 10, the date of the resolution, to comply with the directives.

“Otherwise, the endorsement by IATF to the effect that StaySafe.PH is the official contact-tracing application of the government shall be withdrawn and Multisys shall migrate the data collected and stored in StaySafe.PH to the DICT,” it said.

Roque said with the IATF decision, this answers all the criticisms, including that of former DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr., against StaySafe.PH.

“Only government will handle the data, no other entity will handle that,” he said. Celerina Monte/DMS