Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information Valid IDs PH collects when you visit this website, why we collect it, how it is used, who it may be shared with, and the choices and rights you have over it. Please read it before using the site. If you do not agree with how this policy describes our practices, the simplest option is not to use the site.

Last updated: November 2026

Who We Are

Valid IDs PH is an independent informational website that publishes guides about Philippine government identification cards. We are not a government agency, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by any Philippine government office.

We do not process ID applications, we do not act as an agent for any agency, and we do not ask readers to submit application documents to us. For any question about this policy or about the data we hold, you can write to us at [email protected].

Information We Collect

We collect two broad categories of information. The first is information you choose to give us. The second is information that is recorded automatically when any browser loads a page on this site, which is normal for websites in general and is not unique to us.

Information You Give Us Directly

You can read every page on this site without giving us anything. You only share personal information if you decide to contact us. When you email us, we receive the following.

Your email address, because that is how the message reaches us and how we reply.
Your name, if you include it in your message or in your email signature.
Whatever else you write in the body of the message, including any attachments you choose to send.

Please do not send us copies of your IDs, application reference numbers, birth certificates, bank details, or any other sensitive personal document. We have no use for them, we cannot process your application, and we would rather not hold them at all. If you do send such material, we will delete it and tell you that we have done so.

Information Collected Automatically

Like virtually every website, our hosting provider and our service partners record technical information each time a page is requested. This is standard server and analytics data, and it is used to keep the site working and to understand which guides readers find useful.

Your IP address, which also indicates your approximate location at city or region level, not your street address.
Your browser type and version, your operating system, and your device type.
The pages you viewed, the time and date of the visit, and how long you stayed on a page.
The page or search result that sent you here, known as the referring source.
Error and diagnostic data when a page fails to load correctly.

On its own, this information does not tell us who you are. We do not attempt to combine it with other data in order to identify individual readers, and we do not build personal profiles of our visitors.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

A cookie is a small text file that a website or its partners place on your device so that certain information can be remembered between page loads or between visits. This site uses a small number of cookies, and our advertising and analytics partners use their own.

Essential cookies keep the site functioning, for example by remembering your cookie or consent choice so you are not asked again on every page.
Analytics cookies help us count visits and understand which pages are read most, in aggregate rather than individually.
Advertising cookies are set by our advertising partners to serve ads, limit how often you see the same ad, and measure whether an ad was effective.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Every major browser lets you block cookies, delete the ones already stored, or receive a warning before a cookie is set. Blocking advertising cookies does not remove ads, it means the ads you see are less relevant to you. Blocking all cookies may affect how parts of the site behave.

How We Use Your Information

We use the limited information described above for a short list of clearly defined purposes, and for nothing else. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not rent or trade mailing lists.

To deliver the pages you request and keep the website running reliably.
To reply to emails you send us and to follow up on corrections you report.
To understand which guides readers use, so we know which pages to expand, update, or rewrite.
To detect and prevent abuse, spam, scraping, and attacks on the site.
To display advertising, which is what pays for the site, and to measure the performance of that advertising.
To comply with legal obligations where we are required to retain or disclose information.

Advertising and Google AdSense

This website is free to read and is supported by advertising. We work with third party advertising partners, including Google, to display ads on our pages. Those partners operate under their own privacy policies, and this section explains what they do and how you can control it.

How Google Uses Advertising Cookies

Google is one of the third party vendors that may serve ads on this site. Google uses cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or to other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and other sites on the internet.

You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can read more about how Google uses information from sites that use its services on the Google policies page, and you can review Google’s full Privacy Policy.

Other Third Party Advertising Vendors

Third party vendors and ad networks other than Google may also serve ads on this site. These vendors may use cookies, web beacons, pixels, or similar technologies to collect information about your visits here and to other websites, in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may interest you.

We do not control the cookies set by these vendors and we do not have access to the data they collect. Each vendor is responsible for its own practices under its own privacy policy. To opt out of personalised advertising from many vendors at once, you can visit aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. Readers in Europe can use Your Online Choices.

What Advertisers Never Receive From Us

We never pass reader email addresses, message content, or any information you send us by email to advertisers or ad networks. Advertising partners work from their own cookie and device data, not from our correspondence.

Analytics

We use analytics services to understand how the site is used in aggregate. Analytics tells us things like how many people read a guide, how they found it, and whether they left quickly, which usually means the page did not answer the question.

Analytics data is reported to us in grouped form. We do not use it to identify individual readers, and we do not try to match it to any name or email address. Where our analytics provider offers IP anonymisation, we rely on it. You can block analytics cookies through your browser or through a privacy extension without losing access to any content on this site.

Legal Basis for Processing

Where data protection law requires us to state a legal basis for handling personal information, we rely on the following grounds, depending on the situation.

Consent, for advertising and analytics cookies where consent is required in your jurisdiction. You may withdraw consent at any time through your browser or consent settings.
Legitimate interests, for keeping the site secure, preventing abuse, and understanding readership at an aggregate level.
Performance of a request you made, when you email us and we use your address to reply.
Legal obligation, where a law requires us to keep or disclose certain records.

Your Rights Under the Philippine Data Privacy Act

This site is published for a Philippine audience, and we respect the rights given to data subjects by Republic Act 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Those rights include the following.

The right to be informed about whether your personal data is being processed and for what purpose.
The right to access the personal data we hold about you.
The right to object to processing, including processing for direct marketing or for profiling.
The right to have inaccurate or outdated information corrected.
The right to erasure or blocking, where the data is incomplete, outdated, unlawfully obtained, or no longer necessary.
The right to damages, where you suffer harm because of inaccurate, incomplete, or unlawfully obtained data.
The right to data portability, where it applies.
The right to lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] and describe what you are asking for. Because we hold very little reader data, in most cases the honest answer will be that we hold nothing about you beyond an email thread you started, and we will confirm that.

Rights for Readers in the EU and United Kingdom

If you are reading from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation and equivalent UK law. These include the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to complain to your national supervisory authority. Requests can be sent to [email protected], and we aim to respond within one month.

Rights for Readers in California

California residents have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended. These include the right to know what categories of personal information are collected, the right to request deletion, the right to correct inaccurate information, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

We do not sell personal information for money. Where the sharing of advertising identifiers with ad partners is treated as sharing under that law, you can opt out by disabling advertising cookies in your browser and by using the industry opt out links listed in the advertising section above. You will not be treated differently for exercising any of these rights.

Data Sharing and Disclosure

We keep sharing to the minimum needed to run the site. Your information may be processed by the following categories of recipients.

Our hosting provider, which stores the site and processes server logs on our behalf.
Advertising partners, which serve and measure the ads on our pages using their own cookies.
Analytics providers, which report aggregate readership figures to us.
Our email provider, which delivers and stores the messages you send to us.
Legal and regulatory authorities, where disclosure is required by law, court order, or a valid official request.

We do not sell reader data, and we do not share your email address with marketers. If the site were ever sold or merged, reader data could pass to the new owner, and this policy would continue to apply until the new owner published its own.

How Long We Keep Information

We do not keep personal information longer than we need it. Retention depends on the type of data.

Emails are kept while the conversation is active and for a reasonable period afterwards so we can follow up on a correction, then deleted.
Server logs are retained for a short period for security and troubleshooting, then rotated out.
Analytics data is kept in aggregate form according to the retention settings of our analytics provider.
Cookie lifetimes are set by the party that placed the cookie and are visible in your browser’s cookie settings.

How We Protect Information

The site is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection, access to the site’s administration is restricted and protected by strong authentication, and software is kept updated. We limit the amount of personal data we collect in the first place, which is the most effective protection available to a site like ours.

No method of transmission or storage on the internet is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security. If a breach ever affected reader information, we would notify affected readers and the relevant authority as required by law.

Children’s Privacy

This website is written for adults who are applying for government identification, and it is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of thirteen.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has sent us personal information, write to [email protected] and we will delete it. Parents should note that several guides on this site cover IDs that minors can hold, which parents and guardians read on a child’s behalf, and that is the intended use.

International Data Transfers

Our hosting, advertising, analytics, and email providers operate servers in several countries, so information collected through this site may be processed outside the Philippines, including in the United States and in the European Union.

Where such transfers involve personal data protected by law, our providers use recognised safeguards, including standard contractual clauses, to keep the protection with the data when it crosses a border.

Links to Other Websites

Our guides link to official government websites and other sources so you can verify what we publish. Those sites are run by other organisations, and once you click through, you are governed by their privacy policies, not by ours.

We do not control what other websites collect, and we are not responsible for their content or their practices. Advertisements on our pages also lead to third party sites. Reading the privacy policy of any site where you intend to enter personal information is always worth the two minutes it takes.

Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers send a Do Not Track signal. There is still no common industry standard for how a website should respond to that signal, so we do not currently alter our behaviour based on it. Browser cookie controls and the advertising opt out links above give you more reliable control over tracking than the Do Not Track header does.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when our practices change, when we add or remove a service provider, or when the law requires it. The date at the top of this page always shows when the current version was published.

Where a change materially affects how reader information is handled, we will make that clear on the site rather than quietly swapping the text. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the updated policy.

Comments and Embedded Content

Where comments are enabled on a guide, the information you type into the comment form is stored along with your display name and the IP address of the device you used. This helps us detect spam, which is the main reason the address is recorded at all.

Comments are public once approved, so do not post personal details, reference numbers, or contact information in a comment. Articles may also include embedded content such as videos or maps from other websites. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you had visited that other website, which means the provider may set its own cookies and track your interaction with the embed.

Your Choices and Practical Controls

You are not required to accept anything in order to read this site, and several controls are entirely in your hands. The list below covers the ones that actually make a difference.

Clear cookies through your browser settings at any time, which resets advertising and analytics identifiers.
Block third party cookies in your browser, which limits cross site advertising while leaving the site readable.
Turn off ad personalisation in your Google account settings, which applies across every site that serves Google ads.
Use a privacy focused browser or an extension that blocks trackers.
Browse in a private or incognito window, which discards cookies when you close it.
Simply avoid emailing us if you prefer that we hold nothing about you at all.

Automated Decisions and Profiling

We do not make automated decisions about readers that produce legal effects or similar significant effects. We do not score you, rank you, approve or reject anything, or treat you differently based on an automated assessment.

Advertising partners may use automated systems to decide which ad to display, which is an advertising decision rather than a decision about your rights, your eligibility for anything, or your access to the content on this site. Every guide is available to every reader in full.

Accuracy and Editorial Independence

Advertising funds this site but does not shape what we publish. We do not accept payment to describe a process favourably, to recommend a paid service, or to leave out a warning about fees or fixers.

Our guides are written from official government sources and are reviewed on a schedule. Rules and fees still change between reviews, so always confirm the current requirements with the issuing office before you travel to a branch. Nothing on this site is legal advice.

How to Contact Us

For any privacy question, access request, correction, deletion request, or complaint about this policy, write to [email protected].

Please put the word privacy in the subject line so the message is routed correctly, and tell us which right you are exercising and what you would like us to do. We respond to every genuine request, and we will tell you plainly if the answer is that we hold no data about you.

Concluding Remarks

The short version of this policy is simple. You can read every guide on this site without telling us who you are. The only personal information we ever hold is what you choose to send us by email. Everything else is the ordinary technical and advertising data that keeps a free website running, most of it handled by our partners under their own policies rather than by us.

If any part of this policy is unclear, ask us. A privacy policy that readers cannot understand is not doing its job, and we would rather rewrite a paragraph than leave you guessing about what happens to your information.