The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday, Sept. 13, launched an all-encompassing “monitoring system” for online applications to “ensure consumer protection”.
Called the Consumer Application Monitoring Systems (CAMS), it is an initiative of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the DICT.
The CAMS is intended to serve as the government’s tool that can watch over various applications including e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee, delivery apps, and online payment apps.
According to the CICC, the CAMS will also monitor the online applications operated by the government as well as the “connectivity [services] of various providers”.
Officials from the DICT, CICC, the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), and the system’s developer Mozark were present at the launch event at the National Cybercrime Hub in Bonifacio Global City.
While the CICC is the main agency in charge of the implementation of the project, DICT secretary Ivan Uy said the CAMS can serve as a collaboration platform between the private and government sectors.
“This will be a useful tool to identify the performance and the problem with government applications,” he said.
Uy lamented that people often blame poor online services to connectivity although sometimes the problems are in poor applications.
For his part, CICC executive director Alexander K. Ramos said the monitoring system can gauge the level of service that the applications is giving to the public.
“It’s not a warning, but rather it’s a tool. Our objective is to educate the public,” he said.
“People should understand we are not here to put down or to put up anyone. And, you know, we are here for the public to understand that there are options,” Ramos explained.
The consumer monitoring systems will be deployed in 100 city locations nationwide, including one at the National Cybercrime Hub.
Through the CAMS platform, consumers can identify in real time which applications are performing well, the CICC said.
Private companies and government agencies using applications can also identify in real time the performance of their application and improve their services, the agency added.
Ramos also said that CICC will release to the public regularly the result of their monitoring of applications.
“Definitely all the popular apps will be monitored here as part of the consumer protection of CICC. We are going to monitor the performance up until the public gets their money’s worth,” he said.
The project is in collaboration with Mozark, a digital company with offices in Singapore and in the Philippines.
