First published: 06th September 2014
The Police and the Privacy Commissioner are investigating the leak of Hong Kong Immigration Department documents containing personal data. A special task force headed by an Assistant Director of Immigration is conducting an internal investigation. The confidential documents have been revealed in "anonymous letters", but where the letters were discovered has not been revealed.
This is not the first time the Immigration Department has failed to keep personal data confidential. In May 2008, Immigration Department files were disclosed through the Foxy file sharing program. After the incident, the Immigration Department signed a formal undertaking with the Privacy Commissioner to make 10 changes in how it handled personal data but less than three months later, the department was in the news for further data leaks through Foxy.
Updated: 08th September 2014
A more informative press release on the www.info.gov.hk website reveals details missing from the press release on the www.news.gov.hk website. Crucially, the anonymous letters that contained confidential Immigration Department documents were sent to the Immigration Department, presumably with the intent of alerting the department to the data leak.
The whistleblower has done the people of Hong Kong a service in triggering this investigation, and it is to be hoped that the investigation will pursue the flaw that allowed the leak and/or the people who intended dishonest gain from it, not the whistleblower.
