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Objectives
Scope of Coverage
Commencement of Ordinance
Implications for Data
Users and Data Subjects
The Privacy Commissioner for
Personal Data
Data Protection Principles
Exemptions
Offences and Compensation
The Privacy
Commissioner for Personal Data
The Office of The Privacy
Commissioner for Personal Data is headed by the Privacy Commissioner
of Personal Data who is appointed by the Chief Executive.
His duties and powers include:
- promoting the awareness
and understanding of the Ordinance's requirements;
- approving and issuing codes
of practice giving practical guidance on compliance with
the Ordinance;
- approving requests from
data users on automated matching of personal data;
- specifying classes of data
users required to submit annual returns and to compile a
register of data users for public inspection;
- inspection of personal
data systems and making recommendations for compliance with
provisions of the Ordinance; and
- investigation of suspected
breaches of the Ordinance's requirements and issuing enforcement
notices to data users as appropriate.
Data
Protection Principles
Principle 1 -- Purpose
and manner of collection This provides for the lawful and
fair collection of personal data and sets out the information
a data user must give to a data subject when collecting personal
data from that subject.
Principle 2 -- Accuracy
and duration of retention This provides that personal data
should be accurate, up-to-date and kept no longer than necessary.
Principle 3 -- Use
of personal data This provides that unless the data subject
gives consent otherwise personal data should be used for the
purposes for which they were collected or a directly related
purpose.
Principle 4 -- Security
of personal data This requires appropriate security measures
to be applied to personal data (including data in a form in
which access to or processing of the data is not practicable).
Principle 5 -- Information
to be generally available This provides for openness by data
users about the kinds of personal data they hold and the main
purposes for which personal data are used.
Principle 6 -- Access
to personal data This provides for data subjects to have rights
of access to and correction of their personal data.
Exemptions
The Ordinance provides specific
exemptions from the requirements of the Ordinance. They include:
- a broad exemption from
the provisions of the Ordinance for personal data held for
domestic or recreational purposes;
- exemptions from the requirements
on subject access for certain employment related personal
data; and
- exemptions from the subject
access and use limitation requirements of the Ordinance
where their application is likely to prejudice certain competing
public or social interests, such as: security, defence and
international relations; prevention or detection of crime;
assessment or collection of any tax or duty; news activities;
and health.
Offences
and Compensation
There are a variety of offences,
for example non-compliance with an enforcement notice served
by the Privacy Commissioner carries a penalty of a fine at
Level 5 (at present $50,000) and imprisonment for
2 years.
An individual who suffers
damage, including injured feeling, by reason of a contravention
of the Ordinance in relation to his or her personal data may
seek compensation from the data user concerned.
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