The Consumer Council, the Independent Commission Against
Corruption (ICAC), Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal
Data and the Office of the Telecommunications Authority jointly
issued the Code on 17th June.
A spokesperson for the organisations said:
"In the course of business and provision of
services, fixed and mobile service operators collect a large volume
of customer personal data. The data, which include customers'
telephone numbers, residential addresses and details of call
history, may be sensitive in certain circumstances and of value if
used for illicit purposes. It is therefore necessary to ensure that
data relating to customers are properly protected from misuse."
The voluntary Code covers various issues including ethics and
data privacy policy, data classification policy, access control
policy, technical measures for protection of customer personal
data, location security, staff security and transfer of customer
personal data.
Apart from complying with the requirements of the Personal Data
(Privacy) Ordinance, all fixed and mobile service operators are
also obliged under the existing telecommunications licence
conditions to protect their customer information and should not
disclose the information without the consent of the customer for
purposes other than those related to the provision of services.
A spokesman of Consumer Council urged:
"In a highly competitive market, consumers
should exercise their right to choose the service operators who
adopt the Code of Practice, and through their choice to ensure a
high level of standard and put in place the security measure to
protect customer privacy."
An ICAC spokesperson also warned that any staff of service
operators who solicits or accepts advantages to release customers'
information will be in breach of the Prevention of Bribery
Ordinance.
"As reputable and responsible fixed and mobile service
operators, they should rigorously pursue effective security
measures to protect customer information and report suspected
corruption to the ICAC," the spokesperson added.
