Public interest defence could spare newspaper from legal troubles in TransUnion credit exposé, lawyers say
- Chicago-based firm reports incident to police, and calls Ming Pao’s actions fraudulent
- But barrister Albert Luk suggests media outlet will avoid being prosecuted
A Hong Kong newspaper that used top officials’ personal information to expose security loopholes in a Chicago-based credit bureau’s online platform may avoid prosecution, if it was done in the public interest, say legal and privacy experts.
According to sources, TransUnion has reported the incident to police, and called the exposé a “misuse of consumer data” to fraudulently access credit reports.
In an article published on Thursday, Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao said it obtained the credit reports of Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and finance secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, from TransUnion.
The newspaper claimed loopholes in the website meant that it could obtain highly sensitive personal information using Lam and Chan’s identity card numbers and age, both of which can be found on publicly available documents.
Ming Pao also claimed to have bypassed simple security questions before obtaining the credit reports, which held sensitive information such as address, credit card and phone numbers, as well as credit records.