HONG KONG LEADER BRUSHED OFF A WARNING BY MAJOR TECH COMPANIES OVER NEW PRIVACY LAWS

Tue 06 July 2021:

An Asian industry group that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter has warned that tech companies could stop offering their services in Hong Kong if the Chinese territory proceeds with plans to change privacy laws.

The Asia Internet Coalition sent a letter dated June 25 to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data concerning proposed amendments to Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance that aims to combat doxxing, the act of publicly revealing someone’s private data online.

Proposed amendments to privacy laws in Hong Kong could see individuals hit with “severe sanctions”, said the 25 June letter to the territory’s privacy commissioner for personal data, Ada Chung Lai-ling, without specifying what the sanctions would be.

“Introducing sanctions aimed at individuals is not aligned with global norms and trends,” said the letter, whose contents were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“The only way to avoid these sanctions for technology companies would be to refrain from investing and offering their services in Hong Kong, thereby depriving Hong Kong businesses and consumers, whilst also creating new barriers to trade.“

In the six-page document, AIC managing director Jeff Paine acknowledged the proposed amendments focus on the safety and personal data privacy of individuals. “However, we wish to stress that doxing is a matter of serious concern,” he wrote.

Carrie Lam dismissed concerns

Asked about the warning on Tuesday, the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam dismissed those concerns.

“We are targeting illegal doxxing and empowering the privacy commissioners to investigate and carry out operations, that’s it,” she told reporters.

Lam likened the new data privacy powers to a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year to stamp out dissent after huge and often violent democracy protests in 2019.

Lam said that security law had been “slandered and defamed”.

“It’s the same case for the privacy law,” she concluded.

She added that the city’s privacy commission would be happy to meet with tech industry representatives to deal with any anxieties they might have.

But she suggested that her government was determined to press ahead with fast-tracking the new legislation.

“Of course, it would be ideal to relieve this anxiety when we make the legislation. But sometimes it needs to be demonstrated via implementation,” she said.

A sweeping crackdown on opposition and dissent by Hong Kong authorities accelerated with the implementation of the Beijing-designed national security law last year. More than 10,000 people have been arrested in relation to the protests, and at least 128, including journalists and politicians, in relation to new national security offences. The Hong Kong government has rejected international criticism of its crackdown, and instead vowed to further strengthen laws.

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