Privacy Rated A High Priority Social Issue in Survey

Privacy continues to be rated a high priority social issue by the general public, according to the results of the second annual opinion survey commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD).

The survey was carried out in March 1998 by the Social Sciences Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong among 2,000 individuals and 440 organisations on attitudes towards personal data privacy and the implementation of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance ("the Ordinance").

Similar to the survey last year, privacy continued to be rated by individuals as an important social issue, ranked below unemployment, on a par with environmental hygiene, noise pollution and health services, and above building management and sex discrimination.

The survey also found that there was a high level of concern among the public about the use of information made available on various public registers such as those in the Marriage Registry, Land Registry and Transport Department for purposes such as direct marketing. On a scale of one to ten in terms of seriousness as a problem, this was rated on average between 7.2 and 7.9.

On sensitivity towards ID card numbers and copies of ID cards, there was relatively little concern about showing ID cards to the police. The public was rather more concerned over their ID card details being noted down by security guards and providing ID card copies to mobile phone companies.

A relatively high level of respondents, 37%, indicated a belief that their personal data had been misused in the 12 months preceding the survey. The 1998 survey also found that nearly every individual respondent had been made aware of issues relating to personal data privacy through various channels, including the mass media, compared with 70% in the previous year.

As regards the implementation of the Ordinance, the survey indicated a general increase in efforts by organisations to comply with the Ordinance compared with the previous year.

Nearly 90% of organisations claimed that they complied with the requirement to inform individuals of the purposes for which they collect their personal data.

In addition, around 72% of the organisations which used personal data for direct marketing claimed to provide an "opt-out" as required by the Ordinance. Over 65% claimed to have a procedure for handling data access requests.

There were also significant increases in the percentages of organisations that considered the Ordinance would have long term benefits in areas such as customer and employee relations, data accuracy and management and their organisations' public image. The percentages agreeing that there are such benefits in the 1998 survey ranged from 67.5% to 77% compared with 48% to 71% in the 1997 survey.

"The results of the survey provide us with very useful, specific information on public attitudes towards personal data privacy and organisations' work in complying with the Ordinance, which will greatly assist the PCPD in setting priorities for its work in the year ahead," Mr. Stephen Lau, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, said.