Hong Kong commerce minister Greg So hits out at Privacy Commission report on cold calling
Commerce minister tells privacy commissioner it should have consulted bureau before releasing report, and questions credibility of the study
The privacy commissioner and the commerce minister are at loggerheads after the minister questioned the credibility of a study by the watchdog on cold-call marketing.
Commissioner Allan Chiang Yam-wang said yesterday he had received a letter from Greg So Kam-leung "expressing disappointment" over the report and complaining his Commerce and Economic Development Bureau had not been consulted before it was released. The report by the publicly funded watchdog, issued this month, found nine out of 10 Hongkongers were inconvenienced by person-to-person calls and suggested a "don't call" register similar to one set up for pre-recorded calls.
Chiang said on his blog yesterday that the letter "intemperately" questioned the report's figures and cast doubt on the validity and reliability of the results.
He said the bureau claimed the commissioner, in providing an advance copy just a day before publication, kept it "in the dark", deprived it of a "fair hearing" and presented a "one-sided picture" to the public.
"The 2014 survey results are valid and reliable and we have been perfectly honest in our reporting," Chiang wrote.
"It is not entirely clear why the [Commerce and Economic Development Bureau] grilled the figures intemperately."