The Internet has promoted the interconnectivity and enhanced communication among people who may be located on the other ends of the globe. Through emails and Voice over Internet Protocol, it has become cheaper for a person in the United States to call a person in the Philippines. This has made it possible for the customer service of multinational companies to be outsourced to another country such as the Philippines. Off-shoring has made it possible for companies to save money on their labor and operational costs, which in turn enables them to increase capitalization and improve their products and services.



One of the concerns, and objections of customers in outsourcing customer service, however, is the security of their contact details, especially those that pertain to their financial records and matters concerning their identity. They are right to be worried about it because the Internet has also made it possible for hackers and cheaters to take advantage of the information of people for the purpose of undue financial gain and fraudulent financial transactions.

There are a lot of precious information that people are protecting. This includes credit card numbers, birthdates, full names, account numbers and PINs. If these pieces of information fell into the wrong hands, they can be used for stealing the identity of the owner of these information. Although fraud does not only happen on the phone, a lot of people are concerned over their privacy. After all, foreigners do have access to their records that are being held by the company.

Thankfully, the call centers in the Philippines are taking important precautions to ensure that the information of customers is safe and secure. This is done in several ways. As part of their on-boarding process, the call centers are informed about the importance of protecting the privacy and the security of the customers they are serving. As part of cultivating the corporate culture, Philippine call center agents then become conscious of the need to protect the information of their customers. In fact, they are also trained in the process of ensuring that their own passwords and information are safe.

Another way in ensuring the security of customer information is the rule that agents cannot bring pens and papers in the workstations where they accept calls from customers. This prevents them from writing down sensitive information, which may be used for fraudulent transactions. Together with this rule, mobile phones and other electronic devices are also forbidden in the work stations. As such, they cannot take pictures or store information electronically.

In other call centers in the Philippines, bringing in flash disks or portable drives into the call center building is also not allowed. As such, they cannot bring home any information containing sensitive information. In addition to this, some web-based email services are disabled in the system of the call center. Although this may seem excessive, it shows that the call center takes the security of customer information seriously. If information is compromised, the integrity and the reputation of the call center will be tarnished.