Just 6 of 112 Hong Kong online stores surveyed make clear data collected is used for artificial intelligence models training
- An excessive amount of consumer data is collected by traders, including information on marital status, city’s Consumer Council says
- Privacy policies often contain terms that consumers find hard to understand and many click past them without reading
Just six of 112 Hong Kong online stores surveyed declare to customers that data collected was used for artificial intelligence (AI) purposes, as the city’s Consumer Council called for more comprehensive privacy legislation on the usage of the technology.
Such intentions include AI models training, which uses consumer information to improve business performance.
The news came on Thursday as the council announced its latest survey results on consumers’ perception, usage habits of AI in e-commerce and data privacy.
“AI models training should be an independent purpose listed for data collection,” council chairman Clement Chan Kam-wing said.
He added that there was too much information on consumers collected by traders, including data on “employment status”, “marital status” and “education level” which were not directly related to transactions. Six to 10 per cent of some 109 traders in the survey said they collected those items on their platforms.
“AI is a double-edged sword as it fosters economic growth and provides more personalised shopping experiences to consumers,” Chan said. “But it also poses risks to consumers if traders do not fully disclose the details of data collection.”