Transport network company Grab is set to start their in-car video and audio monitoring, today (Monday).
In a statement issued by Grab, the audio and video recording is a pilot study done only in Metro Manila area. The said program is to identify whether or not installing such is an effective way to ensure incident prevention and dispute resolution.
"The pilot study starts on 13 January and will run for 2-6 weeks with over 180 GrabCar vehicles, of which half will be equipped with in-car cameras and the rest with audio-recording capabilities," Grab stated.
According to them, passengers who have been allocated a car participating in the pilot study will be notified in advance via GrabChat, and will have the option to cancel the booking without any penalty.
The said recordings will be encrypted and stored securely in Grab's database for 7 days (audio) and 10 hours (video). Such will only be accessed by authorised Grab representatives for investigation purposes in the unlikely event of an incident.
"Grab sees that this audio and video recording pilot will serve as another layer of security to both drivers and passengers. We hope that this pilot, if proven successful, will bring us even closer to our goal of zero preventable incident on our platform," the group said.
Grab Philippines Public Relations Manager Khrizzy Pasigan assured that the in-car monitoring will be done with Grab taking car of all the recorded material and has no way that their driver-partners can alter the video or audio.
According to her, the audio recording starts when the driver presses pick-up button and stops when driver presses drop off while for video, the dashcam will be recording the whole time the driver is online.
"I would like to reiterate that all files generated by these recording devices are immediately secured into Grab’s database and cannot be altered by driver-partners," she said.
Further, she also noted that the pilot study is compliant with the data privacy laws under the National Privacy Commission (NPC).
Moreover, Pasigan said that they will inform the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) accordingly on the said move.
Asked on the reason the study is being done now, the Grab Philippines representative cited the company's Safer Everyday roadmap launched in 2018. The said plan includes tech enhancements and government partnerships with the goal of bringing the number of preventable incidents to zero.
"This audio and video recording pilot is us following through with our commitment. It is part of the tech roadmap we had promised in 2018, which follows features such as sos button, pax selfie verification — all of which have helped deterred criminal activity on the platform."
"We will continue building tech enhancements to make sure safety of our stakeholders is protected," she concluded.
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