Do-not-call register as law the best option to protect personal data in Hong Kong, privacy chief says
Stephen Wong Kai-yi says legislating to create a register would be strongest deterrent, but city does not want to discourage entrepreneurship
Passing a do-not-call register into law would be the best option to protect Hongkongers’ personal data from telemarketing, the city’s privacy commissioner Stephen Wong Kai-yi said on Monday, a week before a public consultation on the issue was due to end.
“We would prefer setting up a do-not-call register through legislation, which would be better in terms of clarity and deterrence,” Wong said.
But he ruled out a blanket ban on all telephone promotions, saying it was not his decision to make.
Criminal sanctions for telemarketers not abiding by a do-not-call register are among three options on the table in a public consultation exercise currently under way. The others include enhancing trade-specific self-regulatory regimes and promoting the use of call-filtering applications on smartphones.
Wong’s office had been studying all three options, the commissioner said.
Since 2008, a register shielding those taking part from commercial electronic messages via fax, text message and pre-recorded calls has been operated free of charge by the Office of the Communications Authority. But it has been criticised by those who say it lets cold-callers run unrestrained.