Hong Kong’s Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO) regulates the collection and use of personal information. They have stringent requirements on data users, including clearly advising data subjects of their purposes for collecting their personal data as well as any classes of persons to whom it will be transferred without their prior consent. Investigations and prosecutions related to direct marketing practices remain a top priority of PDPO investigations and prosecutions.
The PDPO defines “personal data” as any identifiable individual from which it is possible to identify them; this includes their names, identification numbers and any additional factors like location data or online identifiers. This definition encompasses data regarding both legal entities as well as individuals.
Data users must clearly inform data subjects of the purpose(s) for which their personal data will be collected before or at the time of collection, usually through providing them with a Personal Information Collection Statement. It is vitally important that they convey what will happen with their data as this helps ensure transparency in processing methods as well as to avoid misuse.
Under the PDPO, any user of personal data must keep records regarding its processing activities in order to adhere to its principles and address any complaints about processing. Likewise, this record must be updated if its purpose for collection changes.
Additionally to meeting the PDPO requirements for processing personal data fairly and legally, data users are obliged to protect that personal data against unauthorized access, processing, erasure or disclosure, accidental loss or destruction and any other unlawful processing by taking technical and organisational steps that secure it. Finally, data users should ensure any third parties to whom personal data is transferred comply with PDPO regulations regarding security and privacy protections.
Hong Kong is one of Asia’s premier digital infrastructure footholds and carrier-dense network hubs, boasting multiple locations that connect into an interlinked campus that customers can leverage for high availability deployments across their locations. IBX data centers in Hong Kong also offer direct connections to some of the leading cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Cloud as well as some of Asia’s largest financial institutions, professional services firms and fintech startups.