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Hong Kong’s Personal Data Protection Ordinance (“PDPO”) was initially passed into law in 1996 and amended significantly in 2021 (with recent amendments intended to address “doxxing”). The Ordinance provides data subjects with certain rights as well as obligations on data controllers outlined through six data protection principles.
DPP2 (purpose and collection of personal data), is one of six principles. This principle requires data users to inform subjects of the purposes behind their personal data collection before collecting their personal information from them. Usually this obligation can be fulfilled through providing them with an individual collection statement prior to collecting any of their information.
Some jurisdictions have taken a different view, requiring data users to notify data subjects of any requests for their personal data – this practice is known as “notification”.
Data users often must disclose who will be handling their request in order to comply with lawful requests from government agencies or other entities; or simply for protection of privacy of a data subject. This process is known as disclosure.
Sharing someone’s identity without their consent, whether intentionally or otherwise, is a violation of privacy that can result in severe penalties. According to the Personal Data Protection Office Act (PDPO), disclosing personal information for direct marketing without first receiving consent can constitute a criminal offence, although certain exceptions exist under its provisions.
For instance, the PDPO allows for disclosure of personal data to promote services or products as long as it is relevant and does not exceed limits specified by legislation. This ensures that people do not face undue exposure to marketing efforts while experiencing excessive and unwarranted invasions into their privacy.
Once the national security law was implemented, Apple, Google and Facebook stopped directly responding to data requests from Hong Kong authorities according to their transparency reports. They still shared some information via a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between them and Hong Kong agencies.