Businesses are fighting moves to make them reveal what kind of online customer data they have collected and why - and whether they pass it on to third parties. They are also being asked to register just how many people they are holding information on.
The public sector, banking, telecommunications, insurance and other companies with large customer databases will have to make annual submissions to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner under the proposed Data User Return Scheme.
Any changes would have to be updated within 30 days, and the general public would be able to view the information for a fee.
Companies would have to specify whether they transfer personal data to third parties, in or outside Hong Kong. The internet has seen the amount of customer information captured expand rapidly and the worldwide trade in personal data has become big business.
Eugene Raitt, chairman of the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association, which helps members access list brokers who trade in personal data, said many businesses strongly opposed the scheme.
He said companies would need extra staff to draw up reports for the privacy commissioner and the costs would be passed on to customers.
'The total number of customers is never static,' he said. 'It is always changing every day. If the privacy commissioner really wants to know how many customers' data any one company has, it has to be a daily report.'
