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INTRODUCTION
The Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC) of the University
of Hong Kong was commissioned by the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) in 1997 to carry
out the Baseline Survey: Public Attitudes to and Preparedness
for the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, and in 1998
and 1999 to undertake follow-up surveys.
The objectives of
the 1999 survey were to
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assess individuals' attitudes
to personal data privacy issues and experiences
of misuse of their personal data (with special reference
to Internet privacy), their awareness of the protection
provided by the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance
("the Ordinance") and readiness to make
use of the rights provided by the Ordinance; |
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assess organizations'
attitudes towards and measures taken to implement
the requirements of the Ordinance, their policies
and practices of personal data privacy (including
on-line personal data privacy), and their sources
of help (including the PCPD) in complying with the
Ordinance; |
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where appropriate, comparisons
were made between the findings in the 1999 survey
with those of the 1997 and 1998 surveys to study
the changes within the relevant period. |
The survey consisted of two parts: a survey of individuals
and a survey of organizations. The survey of individuals
was a telephone survey of 1,580 Cantonese speaking HK
residents who lived in a household with a telephone while
the survey of organizations was a bilingual mail survey
of 463 organizations from the public and private sectors
holding a relatively large amount of non-employee personal
data. Both surveys were mainly conducted in March 1999.
Key results of the
survey of individuals
The key results of the survey of individuals are as follows:
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The privacy consciousness
and attitudes of individuals were in general similar
to those in the 1998 survey. They had become more
concerned about the use of their ID card number
and there was an increase in their trust in organizations
with personal data.
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Fewer people alleged
that their personal data had been misused by organizations
while more respondents said that they had experience
of compliance with the Ordinance by being informed
of the purposes of the collection of personal data
and provided with "opt-out" clauses in
direct marketing materials.
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About a quarter
of the respondents would use the Internet for personal
purposes. These respondents were least wiliing to
provide credit card numbers and ID card numbers
on-line but more than half never or seldom checked
the privacy policy of web sites before they provided
their personal data on-line.
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On the other hand,
39% of the respondents did not welcome unsolicited
commercial e-mails mainly because it wasted time
and they were not hoppy that their e-mail address
was used without their consent;
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However, the public's
concern over the privacy/security issues of the
Internet did not have a great deterrent effect on
their use of Internet services.
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Key results of
the survey of organizations
The key results of the survey of organizations are
as follow
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The management
of most respondents had officially adopted some
kind of policies and practices to comply with the
Ordinance.
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Similar to the findings
in the previous survey, the importance of representative
bodies was decreasing while that of the PCPD had
increased in helping organizations to comply with
the Ordinance.
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There was a significant
increase in the percentage of organizations that
considered the Ordinance had long term benefits
for their organizations.
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e-mail policy on
the reading of e-mails by management or on the use
of the e-mail facilities by employees for personal
purposes.
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About half of the
respondents had set up web sites for general access
and one fihh collected personal data on-line. Of
those web sites which collected personal data on
the Internet, 57% provided individuals with Personal
Information Collection (PIC) Statement and 26% provided
a Privacy Policy Statement.
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One fifth of respondents
who collected personal data on the Internet would
send direct marketing e-mails to individuals ond
9096 of them would provide on "opt-out"
clause.
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Notice/
Copyright 2001 Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal
Data, Hong Kong. All rights reserved. Disclaimer
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