If you’re a website owner, or someone who works with data, you probably know about Hong Kong’s data privacy laws. These laws can be complicated, and it’s important to understand how they apply to your business. This blogpost will help you do that by explaining some of the key characteristics of Hong Kong’s Personal Data Protection Ordinance (PDPO).
The main point to remember about the PDPO is that it only applies to ‘data users’, which are people who control the collection, holding, processing or use of data. This includes people who control data through a contract, or who have a direct relationship with the data subject. The PDPO also contains definitions of data subjects, which are the individuals whose data is processed by a data user.
It’s also worth noting that the PDPO defines what constitutes personal data. While the exact definition has not been published, it will likely align with current international standards. This is because many countries have regulatory regimes that expressly regulate information relating to identifiable individuals.
Another feature of the PDPO is that it sets out data protection principles that all organizations must adhere to. This is to ensure that data users take reasonable steps to protect the personal information of data subjects and keep it secure. This includes ensuring that they only collect data for the purposes that they have specified and that they keep it only as long as necessary. It also requires that data users provide transparent and easily accessible information to data subjects about the purpose for which they are collecting their data.
Lastly, the PDPO makes it an offence to transfer personal data out of Hong Kong unless there is a legal basis for doing so. This includes transferring data to countries outside of the European Economic Area. In addition, a data user cannot transfer personal data to a class of persons that is not set out in the PICS or for a purpose other than that for which it was collected.
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