ERNEST KAO ERNEST.KAO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 August, 2015, 1:54pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 August, 2015, 2:03pm
Privacy Commissioner Stephen Wong vows to examine a proposal to hide the full address and full identity card number of company directors. Photo: SCMP Picture
Hong Kong’s newly appointed privacy chief has pledged to listen to more views regarding proposed changes to legislation protecting the data of company directors and to study the matter further.
Privacy Commissioner Stephen Wong Kai-yi, a barrister by profession, said he would look at how such amendments would affect the wider public interest and free flow of information.
“I have noticed that there has been concern about [amendments to the ordinance],” Wong told reporters this morning, on his first day at work in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
“I hope, like my colleagues before me, to listen to more opinions, look at what the greater public interest is and how to do more to protect personal privacy while simultaneously facilitating the freedom of information.”
Wong was speaking about his predecessor Allan Chiang Yam-wang’s proposed amendment to the Companies Ordinance – to hide the full address and full identity card number of company directors, information that is now available on the Companies Registry.
The government sought to study the proposal in 2013, but shelved it after opposition from journalists, activists and members of the public who felt the amendment would limit the free and transparent flow of information and restrict access to company directors.
Chiang had maintained hopes that the government would revisit its decision when the “opportune time” came.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1846361/hong-kongs-new-privacy-chief-stephen-wong-look
