PDPC investigates dark web data sale

Office of the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has launched an investigation into an advertisement on the ‘Dark Web’ offering 22 million sets of personal data, claimed to have been harvested from OPPO smartphones, for sale at US$20,000.

Director of inspection and supervision at the PDPC, told reporters on Friday that they have recently discovered the advertisement. It had been posted by an anonymous person, using the pseudonym ‘SSL Dragon’, on December 17th last year.

He said that OPPO Thailand, the distributor of OPPO and Realme smartphones, has been informed of the data leaks and told to report back to the PDPC within 72 hours. He said that the company must be held accountable and pay compensation if any of their smartphone owners show the authorities that their personal data was stolen or has been sold.