New laws needed to cover content removal requests in Hong Kong, say transparency advocates
Government asked Google to remove content for ‘national security’ reasons – although no law exists to grant such a request
Hong Kong should follow the lead of other jurisdictions and introduce new legislation or amend current laws for greater transparency on personal data and content removal requests by various government branches, say advocates for more openness.
This is in light of government requests to an internet search engine – Google – for removal of content for “national security” reasons, although no law existed to grant such a request.
With the government’s refusal to expand surveillance regulations by adding access to user data and stored communications in 2016, information technology sector legislator Charles Mok said Hong Kong was behind other jurisdictions in data privacy and access to user information in cyberspace.
“Particularly when it comes to non-telephone or non-voice communications, which citizens depend on day-to-day more and more, which store and forward data … it became very convenient for the authorities to bypass the restrictions under the law,” he said.
Personal information more at risk than ever in age of big data, Hong Kong privacy watchdog head says
South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Britain and the US were some of the top ranking governments for data request and surveillance transparency, according to an annual report published by Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre.
