Interviewing the new Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Raymond Tang Yee Bong, has nothing to do with prying into his personal particulars.  Apart from the profile provided by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), which tells you briefly about Tang's background ? a solicitor-turned barrister and former Chief Counsel of the Securities and Futures Commission with nearly 35 years of experience in the practice of law, Tang prefers to tell you what "Privacy" is about rather than anything personal.  "Let's talk about the issue of Privacy.  The readers probably wouldn't be interested in knowing about me beyond my work, would they?"   His light-hearted manner set the tone of the interview of a serious subject.

What is Privacy
"Privacy exists in any society with more than one person.  Whenever two persons exchange information of one another, they have possession of the other person's personal data.  Privacy has different connotations at different times for different people.  In Hong Kong, the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance ('PD(P)O') protects the individual's personal data privacy.  Whether we should go beyond that is a matter for the community to debate and decide.  It is not an offence to collect or use another person's personal data, if there is a consent between them to do so.  The emphasis is on consent and transparency.  Protection of personal data therefore does not mean the prohibition of usage of another person's personal data, but the right of protection for the sources of such data to ensure such data is not misused or abused."

A Natural Course of Economic Development 
"The concept of protection of personal data is a natural development in the course of economic growth, as economic activities have led to two-way flows of personal data across national boundaries which is difficult to control or regulate.  In 1980, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) agreed on several 'Data Protection' principles to avoid the use of personal data being abused.  In 1995, the EU (European Union) issued a Directive on protection of personal data and control of data flow for European countries trading with one another to observe.  One most important aspect of the Directive is the requirement that a member country must ensure that a framework of regulation for data protection exists in another country, should any personal data be transmitted via electronic means over to that country for commercial purposes."

Technology and Protection of Personal Data
"The need for the protection of personal data also came about as modern technology advances? Tang went onto explain.  "Technology is about business and facilitates the promotion of economic activities, as it is capable of enabling a huge amount of data and information regarding human activities to be processed, transmitted and shared amongst large number of people in real time.  Collection of personal data of individuals has significant commercial value as a critical mass of personal data can generate valuable data showing personal profiles and behavioural patterns of economic significance that will facilitate business development and monitoring of market performance, implying its 'economic value'.  Personal data also has its non-economic 'social value'.  It dictates how a government ministers the society.  It is therefore obvious that technology gives rise to privacy impact and certain regulations must be established to monitor its application on collection, processing and use of personal data."

Privacy in Hong Kong
"The privacy law in Hong Kong results from the recognition that if technology is capable of processing and transmitting massive information of individuals for purposes which the individual might not have contemplated, then there is a risk that the privacy rights of data subjects may be compromised.  In order to avoid such information being abused by the users, there is the need for legislation to be put in place to protect the sources of such information.  Indeed, this happened only not long ago, but I am proud to tell you that Hong Kong is considered to be very advanced amongst many other countries in the world in the scope of our legislation and enforcement of personal data privacy. As a founding member of the WTO (World Trade Organization), our legislation in privacy is both OECD and WTO compliant and up to their best practices," he added with a satisfactory smile on his face.

Privacy in Everyday Life
The concept and legislation of privacy relates very closely with our everyday life.  "Privacy operates at the personal level.  Under the PO(P)O, personal data refers to any data that can be accessed to identify an individual, such as your name, address, telephone number, ID card, medical record, and even your financial information and appraisal record as an employee.  The law ensures that data users collect and use an individual's personal data for a consistent purpose and keep them up-to-date and accurate.  Besides, individuals also have the right to access their data held by the data user and make changes if they are inaccurate."

General Public's Perception towards Privacy
According to Tang, the implementation of the privacy law in a pre-dominantly Chinese society like Hong Kong has been (in some way, unexpectedly) most successful.  "You will be surprised to learn that the general public of Hong Kong are extremely receptive towards the concept of Privacy,?he said. "The fact that we have received over 85,000 enquiries since the Commission was established 5 years ago and over 2,700 investigations have been undertaken so far has proven this point.  People's enquiries have also evolved from less complex issues to more complicated.  For example, the enquiries were more about the use of ID Card and credit card numbers in the early days, but now they have advanced to confidentiality of medical records, personal credit data and employment related records, etc. In fact, privacy is an evolving concept.  It is not absolute.  While our existing legislation helps to provide a guideline to protect personal data from being abused, it leaves open the wider issue of the definition of privacy, its boundaries and extent of legal protection.  Society as a whole will have to debate and ultimately find the balance between the social and economic needs and expectation of the individual's right to privacy."

Privacy and Corporations
Companies in Hong Kong also seem to have embraced the concept well.  "I dare say that most large corporations in Hong Kong have already adopted the principles of privacy in practice by implementing necessary measures and policies that are compliant with privacy principles.  The framework of privacy principles should not be seen as restrictive but operates to facilitate a fair and open business environment which has economic value.  Hence, small companies should not be deterred by it.  In making company policies privacy compliant, all you need is to ensure that during the process of handling personal data: 1) the personal data is collected in a fair manner; 2) the data is used for the same purposes as when they were collected; 3) the data is received and kept not longer than necessary; and 4) the sources of personal data have the right of getting access to such data for rectification if they are not up-to-date," he added. 

Mission and Vision
"At present, most Hong Kong people's perception and approach towards privacy is still fairly egocentric.  After all, it is a relatively new law.  I believe that privacy is something that is best expressed in terms of respect for another person's right, which demands the innate value of one's respect for the privacy of the others.  Such value is not an in-borne quality, not to mention the natural sense of curiosity which many of us may have towards the others.  To achieve our goal, we need to adopt the educational approach and develop a culture of respect.  One important aspect of PCPD's role is to give advice with a view to balance private interests with community needs and aspirations, and legislation should facilitate mutual respect and understanding rather than relying on enforcement of privacy rights to attain a more harmonious society.  That is why we consider educating the young our priority as well as an essential part of our work.  I hope that our society will eventually come to accept respect of someone else's privacy as a norm, and the law will merely become a tool for enforcement.
 

This article was published in "Dimensions" (January 2002), newsletter of "Sino Club" of Sino Group.