The PCPD has consistently worked towards establishing a professional relationship with all branches of the media in order to inform public opinion and communicate developments in privacy-related issues. Over the course of the year, the PCPD organized press briefings and media interviews with senior staff and responded to over 400 media enquiries. The main purpose of briefings and interviews is to facilitate the dissemination of PCPD news by the media thereby creating interest and debate of privacy issues in the community. In dealing with social issues that impact upon personal data privacy the PCPD has always taken a proactive approach towards conveying its policies to the community via the mass media. The PCPD is of the view that an informed public are more likely to be a privacy-aware public and hence empowered to take decisions and make choices that will protect their personal data privacy.

The following listing provides an indication of the range of privacy issues that were widely reported by the media during the course of the year.

• Installation of CCTV in public places
• Exchange of medical data online
• Use of personal data for voter registration purposes
• Collection, transfer to and use of consumer credit data by credit reference agencies
• Posting of blind recruitment advertisements in the printed media
• Use of biometric fingerprint scanners
• Transfer of customer data subsequent to corporate acquisition
• Disclosure of shareholder interests regime
• Publication of blacklists on the website

Survey on Monitoring and Personal Data Privacy in the Workplace

HKIHRM and the PCPD released the survey findings at a press conference.

At the time of drafting the Privacy Guidelines: Monitoring and Personal Data Privacy at Work, the PCPD conducted a joint survey with the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management ("HKIHRM"). The survey sought to map the views of the community - human resource practitioners in particular - towards the privacy issues raised by employee monitoring. The survey was conducted in August and September and the results released in December 2004. The findings can be viewed at either the PCPD's website (www.pcpd.org.hk) or that of the HKIHRM (www.hkihrm.org)