Veteran government lawyer appointed to lead Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog amid concerns over national security law, doxxing incidents
- Ada Chung was on Friday revealed as Carrie Lam’s choice to head the body overseeing personal data concerns in the city
- The 61-year-old has held a number of local posts, and played a key role in rewriting the Companies Ordinance in 2014
Ada Chung Lai-ling, 61, was named by city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Friday to a five-year term as the privacy commissioner for personal data, effective September 4.
She succeeds Stephen Wong Kai-yi, whose term expires on August 3.
Chung joined the government as an assistant tax assessor in 1981. She was called to the bar in England in 1988 before assuming a variety of local posts including principal government counsel for the Department of Justice and deputy law officer of the civil division.
The commissioner’s office oversees the enforcement of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO), which governs the collection, handling and use of personal data.
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Craig Choy Ki of the Progressive Lawyers Group said he believed one of the challenges facing the watchdog now was that its power could be overridden by the sweeping new national security law Beijing imposed on the city last month.
The law, adopted on June 30, criminalises subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security.
The legislation has granted police extensive new powers to investigate national security cases, including the ability to search premises and electronic devices as well as intercept electronic communications and conduct covert surveillance with only the chief executive’s approval rather than a court warrant.
The national security law will prevail if there is any conflict between [it] and local laws, including the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance
“The national security law will prevail if there is any conflict between [it] and local laws, including the PDPO,” Choy said.
“The risk could be very high. For example, if the government or police are prosecuting someone under the national security law, all these protections under the privacy law will not be able to protect anyone in Hong Kong.”
Choy emphasised that the city’s data privacy laws lack provisions covering the protection of cross-border information transfers to outside jurisdictions, including to mainland China.
Hong Kong national security law: read the full text
The watchdog and the government are now working on a review and considering legal amendments to enhance its authority to tackle the problem.
Hong Kong police’s sweeping new powers include warrant-free raids and ordering internet firms to remove content
Stuart Hargreaves, associate professor at Chinese University’s Faculty of Law, said the privacy commissioner’s powers are relatively weak as they stand.
“[The watchdog] can conduct ‘investigations’ into whether the PDPO has been breached, but [its] remedial powers are limited to issuing enforcement notices or recommending prosecution to the police for certain breaches of the ordinance or failure to comply with an enforcement notice,” he said.
Hargreaves said he believed the new commissioner’s most important task would be to modernise Hong Kong’s data privacy law, which has not been substantially updated since 1995 beyond some provisions dealing with direct marketing offences.
