Data hk is a platform for open government data. The site provides access to more than a million data sets from international, EU and national data portals.
The data hk website allows users to find, share and download public data. It also includes a map-based data visualization tool to help analyze the geographic distribution of different types of data.
Hong Kong has a well-established legal framework for protecting personal information, the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“PDPO”). This set of principles establishes data subject rights and regulates the collection, processing, holding and use of personal data through six data protection principles. The PDPO was first enacted in 1996 and has been amended several times since, including in 2012 and 2021.
A change that is being mooted to the PDPO definition of “personal data” is to bring it into line with the more comprehensive meaning of the term as used in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This would mean that any information that could be used to identify an individual – for example, name; identification number; location data; online identifier; or factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of a person – could be considered personal data.
As a result of the widening definition, companies should consider carefully how they collect, process and store personal data before transferring it outside Hong Kong. Currently, the PDPO does not contain any express provisions conferring extra-territorial application. However, the PDPO does impose obligations on data users if they transfer personal data to a third party located in another jurisdiction. The PDPO requires that a data user provide details of the purposes and processing activities for which it is collecting the personal data to the data subject before consenting to the transfer. It also requires a data user to ensure that its agent or contractor complies with the requirements of the PDPO.