The Professional Commons holds Open Forum on Privacy

First published: 10^th December 2010

The Professional Commons held an Open Forum on “Review of Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance” on 9th December, with Government and Privacy Commissioner representatives speaking. The ongoing review of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance is a hot topic of public policy in Hong Kong at the moment, and this was a further opportunity for discussion.

Ms Adeline Wong, Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, HKSAR Government, explained the proposed amendments from her department, and Mr. Henry Chang, Information Technology Advisor and Mr. Wilson Lee, Chief Personal Data Officer, both of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data responded. Mr. Charles Mok, Vice Chairperson of the Professional Commons moderated the event. The discussion was continued by a panel consisting of Mr. Ian Christofis of PISA, Mr. SC Leung of IT Voice and Mr. Allan Dyer, our Chief Consultant, speaking in his personal capacity.

Some of the topics included special provisions regulating Direct Marketing, making disclosure for profit or malicious purposes an offence, whether breach notification should be voluntary or mandatory, regulation of Data Processors, Sensitive Personal Data, a Do Not Call list for Person to Person phonecalls, criminal investigations and source disclosure. Mr. Dyer's speech is included in this newsletter.

The consultation period for the report on the Public Consultation will end on 31st December 2010. There will be another opportunity to question Mr. Henry Tang at a Hong Kong Computer Society event on 13th December.