XN000022-1995-04-07 — Page 4

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Personal Data (Privacy) Bill gazetted

A Bill to protect the privacy interests of the individual with respect to personal data has been approved by the Executive Council and was gazetted today (Friday).

A Government spokesman said the Personal Data (Privacy) Bill would also contribute to Hong Kong's continued economic well-being by safeguarding the free flow of personal data to Hong Kong. This is because an increasing number of countries are enacting data protection laws with provisions to restrict the transfer of personal data to jurisdictions that do not have adequate statutory protection for the privacy of personal data.

The enactment of laws to protect the privacy of the individual with respect to personal data is part of an international trend, the spokesman said. To date 27 countries have enacted national data protection legislation. Such legislation is a response to concerns about the potential adverse impact on individuals of personal data that is inaccurate, or is not collected or used fairly.

The spokesman pointed out that the Bill implements most of the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission in its report on reform of the law relating to the protection of personal data published in August 1994. That report was based on more than four years' work by the Law Reform Commission including a thorough public consultation exercise in 1993.

Key elements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Bill are the rights of access and correction it gives to individuals with respect to their own personal data and the limits it places on the uses to which personal data are put.

Subject to the exemption provisions, personal data may not be used for purposes other than those for which the data were to be used at the time of collection, which must be specified to the data subject where the data is collected from him or her, or directly related purposes. Personal data can only be used for different purposes with the consent of the data subject, the spokesman said.

The main features of the Bill are as follows:

It gives statutory effect to internationally accepted data protection principles, which provide for the fair collection of personal data; requirements that personal data be accurate and not kept for longer than necessary; limits on the use of personal data; security of personal data; openness by data users about the kinds of personal data they hold and purposes to which they are put; and for data subjects to have rights of access and correction with respect to their personal data.