"Privacy is Your Business” Prize Presentation Ceremony

1.          The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Mr. Roderick B Woo, announced at the prize presentation ceremony of the “Privacy is your business” international writing competition that Miss Yeung Kuen, a student at the Precious Blood Secondary School, has won the second place of the regional prize of the competition.  Miss Yeung is also the winner of the competition in the Hong Kong and Macau.

2.    “Entrants from Hong Kong and Macau have fully reflected their recognition and understanding of privacy in their entries.  I am most impressed with Miss Yeung’s entry, which used ‘treasure box’ as a metaphor for privacy, that things in the box are very important to us and therefore should not be easily disclosed to others.  I am also pleased that young people have shown high respect for privacy, not only for themselves, but also for other people.” Mr. Woo said.

3.    The competition was organized by members of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) as part of its Privacy Awareness Week 2007 (26 August to 1 September) initiatives.  Macau Consumer Council had also participated in the competition.  The competition aimed at encouraging secondary students to consider the importance of privacy in their daily lives.  Entrants were able to submit a written piece in any format addressing the theme, “Privacy is your business”.  Entries included poetry, prose, internet blog entries, diary entries, radio interview scripts, academic essays and word art.

4.    The competition had received overwhelming responses with a total number of 244 entries from Hong Kong and Macau.  The Hong Kong and Macau prizes were adjudicated by members of the Personal Data (Privacy) Advisory Committee.  The local winning entrants included:
Winner: Yeung Kuen (Precious Blood Secondary School)
First runner up: Chiu Ka Yi (Po Leung Kuk No.1 W.H.Cheung College)
Second runner up: Chan Weng Sam, Sammy (Colegio de Santa Rosa de Lima, English Secondary (Macau))
Merit prizes: Cheng Ka Man (Po Leung Kuk No.1 W.H.Cheung College); Vanessa Green (South Island School); Lam Ka Ian, Cindy (Colegio de Santa Rosa de Lima, English Secondary (Macau)); Yeung Chun Hon (Christ College) and Ng Tat Lam (CNEC Christian College).

5.   The international prizes were adjudicated by the APPA Privacy Commissioners.  The international winning entrants included:
Winner: Erica Hei-Yuan Chan, Australia
Second place: Yeung Kuen, Hong Kong
Third place: Briony Bennett, New Zealand

6. To view the award-winning articles, please visit the PCPD’s website (http://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/activities/promotion.html).