First published: 25th July 2008
The publication of private photos of female stars in sex acts with entertainer Edison Chen Koon-hei in January and February really put data privacy on the agenda for 2008. Three men were charged with offences relating to the incident, and now the first has been sentenced. Kwok Chun-wai, a 24 year old logistics clerk, pleaded guilty to three counts of publishing obscene articles between January 29 and February 6 this year, and was sentenced to two months in jail, suspended for two years.
Mr. Kwok had downloaded 140 celebrity sex pictures from the internet and saved them to a server. He then posted 25 hyperlinks on a Hong Kong-based adult discussion forum. This is selective prosecution, the photos do show explicit sex acts, and the act of storing them on a public server and linking to them is "publication", just as this newsletter is published on a website, but this type of material is not uncommon in adult internet forums. Kwok's lawyer complained that he had been made a scapegoat and it was unfair that other people who had posted the images online had not been prosecuted.
It is fortunate that the judge in the case had some sense of perspective. Kowloon City Court Principal Magistrate Andrew Ma Hon-cheung said that he was lenient on Mr. Kwok because he committed the offence out of "curiosity" and did not intend to cause harm to the celebrities.
The Edison Chen photos case does feature a serious crime: the unauthorised copying of private data from Chen's computer. Computer technician Sze Ho-chun is accused of that, and he will be facing three counts of dishonest computer access in October.
Data privacy has remained in the news this year because of repeated revelations of leaks from Government departments and major businesses, including the Hospital Authority, Immigration Department, Police and HSBC.