Privacy Commissioner hosts the 31st APPA Forum

1.       Hong Kong’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data hosts the 31st Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) Forum on 11 and 12 June 2009.

2.   Privacy Commissioners and representatives of Australia (including Victoria), Canada, New Zealand and South Korea will attend the Forum. Representatives from privacy related authorities in other jurisdictions including Macao and Portugal would also attend.

3.    “In the digital age, the flow of personal data has no boundary.  It is therefore important for Hong Kong to collaborate with overseas privacy authorities especially those within the region.” Privacy Commissioner Roderick Woo said.

4.    APPA is a forum established in 1992 for privacy authorities in the Asia Pacific region to liaise and exchange ideas about privacy regulation, new technologies and the management of privacy enquiries and complaints.  Participants of APPA currently include the Privacy Commissioners of Australia (including the Commissioners of the States of New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory), New Zealand, Canada (including the Province of British Columbia), the Korean Information Security Authority, and Hong Kong.  APPA convenes twice a year. The last time Hong Kong hosted the event was in November 2006.

5.    APPA has the principal objectives of:
-  Facilitating the sharing of knowledge and resources between privacy authorities within the Asia-Pacific
-  Fostering cooperation in privacy and data protection
-  Promoting best practice amongst privacy authorities
-  Working to continuously improve our performance to achieve the important objectives set out in our respective privacy laws.

6.    In the closed session of the Forum (11 June), members will discuss jurisdictional reports and exchange expertise and share experience in many data protection issues.

7.    In the broader session of the Forum (12 June), privacy issues such as breach notification, privacy law reform in Hong Kong and APEC update will be discussed.

8.    In the afternoon of 12 June, a Public Forum will be held. The topic is Hong Kong’s proposed electronic health record sharing system.  Three experts from Hong Kong will speak on the subject from different perspectives. A panel discussion will follow. The panel comprises the Privacy Commissioners of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong.    Members of the Data Protection Officers' Club and public members from relevant fields in the audience will be invited to ask questions and make comments.


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