On 20 January 2020, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
Bureau ("CMAB"), together with the city's number one
privacy watchdog, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data
("PCPD"), published a paper ("PDPO Review
Paper") to map out large scale reforms of the city's
privacy laws for discussion and review by the Legislative Council
Panel on Constitutional Affairs.
A cry for reform from recent incidents
A review of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486)
("PDPO") has been long awaited.
When the PDPO was enacted in 1995, it was considered as
state-of-the-art legislation in the data privacy arena,
representing the first comprehensive set of privacy laws in the
region. Since its enactment in 1995, the PDPO has only undergone
review once in 2009 – 2012, which resulted in the
strengthening of restrictions on the use of personal data for
direct marketing purposes in 2013.
