Be vigilant, Hong Kong privacy commissioner urges as study reveals websites collect loads of young people’s personal data
Around 60 per cent of local websites collect home addresses, far outpacing the global average of 19 per cent
The city’s privacy commissioner said children and teenagers were easy targets for privacy breaches arising from websites and mobile apps after a study revealed that large quantities of personal data were collected from them.
A study by the office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data revealed that 36 per cent of websites and mobile apps targeting children and teens between ages six and 17 asked for their Hong Kong identification number.
Conducted in May this year, the study formed part of a global exercise with 28 other privacy enforcement authorities around the world examining the privacy protections of 1,494 websites and mobile apps.
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The local component of the global study involved 43 websites and two mobile apps run by NGOs, businesses and the governments, and they were among the most visited in Hong Kong.
Around 60 per cent of the local websites collected home addresses, while more than 70 per cent asked for their phone numbers. These figures far outpaced collection rates internationally, which averaged 19 and 22 per cent, respectively.
More than half of the local websites did not indicate they might share the collected personal data with third parties, which could include other businesses.
“You have to be vigilant about leaving your digital footprint,” said Stephen Wong Kai-yi. “Whatever is downloaded from the internet cannot be deleted. The internet will never forget. It’s a serious risk.”
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Some of the websites had collected third-party information, such as email addresses and phone numbers of parents and friends, without their consent.
The majority had educational purposes such as providing online tutoring. Many offered online games or activities that appealed to children.
Wong said children were an especially vulnerable group, and might share information more easily than adults as they were not as aware of privacy risks.
While the conduct of such websites might not be illegal, Wong said fewer than 10 of those included in the study were problematic and that his office had taken steps to investigate how the data was being used.
