In 2003 the PCPD instructed the Social Sciences Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong to undertake a Data Users Survey. The findings of that survey were presented to the PCPD in June 2004. The survey sample of 273 data users, drawn from the public and private sectors, were asked about a wide range of privacy-related issues and practices. These included questions that investigated attitudes towards compliance, organizational arrangements for compliance, organizational expertise/training for the Ordinance and surveillance in the workplace.

The following are some of the more significant findings.

• Organizational Arrangements to Comply with the Ordinance

  58% of all organizations surveyed had formally adopted written policies to comply with the Ordinance although this figure disguises the fact that fully 97% of government departments had a written policy. By way of comparison, 62% of subvented organizations and 46% of private organizations had written policies. This pattern is replicated in terms of the percentage of organizations in the government, subvented and private sector having a Privacy Policy Statement ("PPS") and a Personal Information Collection Statement ("PICS").

  In general, the incidence of having written policies to comply with the Ordinance is directly related to size. Large organizations i.e. those with at least 1000 staff, all had written policies whereas the comparable figure for small organizations i.e. those with 10 staff or less, was 24%.

• Expertise and Training for the Ordinance

  64% of respondent organizations in the 2004 survey indicated that they had adequate expertise and knowledge to comply with the provisions of the Ordinance. However, it is evident from the findings that smaller organizations with 10 or fewer staff had considerably less confidence that they possessed the requisite skills and expertise. This insight offers the PCPD a potential focus in terms of its future promotion and training programmes.

• Long Term Benefits Derived from Compliance with the Ordinance
  

  Respondents continue to agree with the long-term benefits to be derived from compliance with the provisions of the Ordinance. 90% agreed with the view that compliance was beneficial to the public image of the organization and 89% agreed that it was beneficial in terms of encouraging good information handling practices. A further 85% felt that it enhanced customer relationships and 84% felt that compliance contributed to good in-house personal data management practices. These findings are encouraging, as the PCPD has consistently subscribed to the view that compliance is in the best interests of data users. Embracing the provisions of the Ordinance does therefore appear to confer benefits that are recognized by customers and the community at large.

• Surveillance in the Workplace

  The data users survey also investigated the prevalence of practices pertaining to five forms of surveillance in the workplace (CCTV, telephone, E-mail, web browsing and computer use). 48% of respondents were engaged in at least one of these five forms of surveillance and 27% made use of two or more types.

  The findings indicate that the number of respondent organizations having a written policy on workplace surveillance increased from 18% in 2000 to 25.5% in 2004. The number confirming no written policy also increased from 47% to 64% over the same period. These results reinforce the need for guidelines on employee monitoring which were duly released by the PCPD in December 2004. One of the principal recommendations made in the guidelines was that employers engaged in collecting personal data in the course of workplace monitoring should draft and communicate a written Employee Monitoring Policy to their employees.

  What emerges from the 2004 surveys is that the mapping of Data Subjects attitudes continues to yield valuable insights to community perceptions towards personal data privacy. However, that is less true with the Data Users survey which seems to have peaked in terms of the utility of findings.

  The key findings of the survey may be viewed in greater detail at: www.pcpd.org.hk/english/publications/opinionsurvey9.html.