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2004
Data Users Opinion Survey
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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%.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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