Hong Kong privacy watchdog blasts electoral office for massive data breach
Officials under fire for keeping details of all city’s 3.78 million on voters on laptop that was stolen the day after chief executive election
The report, released on Monday, accused the Registration and Electoral Office of lacking “the requisite awareness and vigilance expected of it in protecting personal data”.
The commissioner ruled the office had broken the data protection principle of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.
Arguably the worst personal data breach in Hong Kong, the incident came to light on March 27 when electoral officers went to pack up at the AsiaWorld-Expo, fallback venue for the election of the city’s leader the day before. Two notebook computers stored in a room were missing, presumably stolen.
One contained the names of the roughly 1,200 members of the Election Committee that picks the chief executive. The other contained information about all Hong Kong’s registered voters, including their names, addresses, ID card numbers, and the geographical constituencies in which they were registered.