Privacy Notice

1. Who is responsible for your personal data

The Provincial Government of Albay is the government entity responsible for the processing of personal data carried out through this portal. The Provincial Budget Office administers the PBO Portal for its authorized budget, document-routing, reporting and related public-service functions.

2. Information we may process

• Account information: name, username, email address, password hash, account status and security information.
• Profile information: birthdate, address, gender, phone number, office/department and organization membership.
• Optional identity-verification information: profile photo, company/office ID and ID number, when voluntarily supplied.
• Government transaction and document information: document references, routing history, office/program classification, payee/particular information where authorized, remarks and processing actions.
• Technical and security information: IP address, browser/user-agent information, session information, audit logs, timestamps and security events.

3. Why we process information

Personal data is processed only for declared and legitimate government purposes, including:

• creating and securing portal accounts;
• verifying identity and organization membership;
• enforcing organization scope, roles and permissions;
• receiving, routing, processing and tracking government documents;
• providing reports and authorized budget-office services;
• maintaining auditability, accountability, security and incident records;
• responding to lawful requests, complaints and data-subject requests; and
• complying with applicable laws, regulations, government records requirements and official mandates.

Optional identity information

Profile photos, company/office IDs and ID numbers are optional. When you choose to provide these, the portal relies on your specific consent for the additional identity verification purpose described above. You may choose not to provide them without preventing creation of a basic portal account.

4. Legal basis and privacy principles

Processing is carried out under applicable Philippine law and government authority, and where appropriate on the basis of consent, legal obligation, public-service functions, or other lawful criteria recognized by the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations.

5. Who may receive or access information

Personal data is not made broadly available. Access may be provided only to:

• authorized Provincial Budget Office and Provincial Government personnel;
• authorized organization administrators and users, only within their permitted scope;
• approved service providers or processors supporting the portal under appropriate safeguards;
• government oversight, audit, investigative or law-enforcement bodies when disclosure is required or authorized by law; and
• other recipients specifically disclosed to you or authorized by law.

The portal does not sell personal data to advertisers or use account data for advertising.

6. Retention and disposal

Personal data is retained only for as long as necessary for the stated purpose and subject to applicable Philippine government records-retention and archival requirements. Account and document-processing records may need to be retained for accountability, audit, legal and records-management purposes even after an account becomes inactive.

Optional identity-verification files should be retained only while reasonably necessary for verification and access administration, unless a longer retention period is required by law, an approved records schedule, an investigation, audit or legal hold. Records that are no longer required should be securely deleted, destroyed or otherwise disposed of according to applicable government rules.

7. How we protect information

The portal uses organizational and technical controls appropriate to its functions, including:

• authenticated access and role/permission controls;
• organization-scoped access to restricted information;
• audit and security logging;
• controlled access to uploaded identity documents through authenticated routes;
• password hashing and session-security controls; and
• ongoing maintenance, access review, backup and security practices appropriate to government systems.

No information system can guarantee absolute security. Suspected privacy or security incidents should be reported promptly through official PGA/PBO channels.

8. Your rights as a data subject

Subject to the Data Privacy Act and other applicable laws, you may have the right to:

• be informed about processing of your personal data;
• access personal data relating to you;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• object to processing in circumstances recognized by law;
• request erasure or blocking when legally warranted;
• withdraw consent for processing that relies on consent, without affecting lawful processing already performed;
• exercise data portability where applicable;
• seek damages where provided by law; and
• lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

Some requests may be limited by legal duties, public-records requirements, audit, accountability, archival obligations or other lawful grounds.

9. Cookies, sessions and automated decisions

The portal may use strictly necessary session cookies or similar technical mechanisms to keep you signed in, protect forms and maintain secure application state. The portal is not intended to use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

The portal does not use personal data to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects unless that processing is separately disclosed with the information required by law.

10. Changes to this notice

This notice may be updated when the portal, law, processing purposes or data-handling practices materially change. The current version and effective date are shown above. Where a material change requires renewed acknowledgement or consent, the portal may ask users to review the updated notice before continuing.

This portal-specific notice is intended to work together with the Provincial Government of Albay's broader privacy-management policies and records-management rules.