Two weeks after it denied selling the personal data of cardholders to third parties, the Octopus Card issuer said yesterday it had made HK$44 million in the past 41/2 years by selling the data.
Making the disclosure at a special hearing conducted by the privacy commissioner, Octopus Holdings chief executive Prudence Chan Bik-wah said she wished to 'sincerely apologise' to affected cardholders.
A lawmaker who has vowed to launch a Legislative Council inquiry called on her to resign.
Chan said that since the Octopus Rewards scheme - operated by two subsidiaries, Octopus Rewards and Octopus Connect - was launched 41/2 years ago, it had sold the data of 1.97 million customers to its six partners in the scheme. As a result each cardholder had been contacted on average 1.7 times.
'The revenue received amounted to HK$44 million, which is 31 per cent of the HK$140 million total revenue of the two companies combined in that period,' Chan said. But taking into account investment and operating expenses the two had reported a combined loss of more than HK$30 million, she said.
Unionist lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing, calling on Chan to step down, said: 'Obviously, what she says now contradicts what she said earlier this month in a press conference her company convened.