Data hk is the Hong Kong data portal which collects and displays open government, academic and industry data. Users are able to access and download more than one million datasets from international, EU, national, regional and local sources as well as use its range of visualisation tools for analysis.
Data HK is an invaluable resource for research on Hong Kong, providing researchers with a trove of data that helps them better comprehend the city. Constantly expanding, its collection comprises various categories and types of information; accessible via both desktop app or web browser access.
Data Hong Kong puts great emphasis on the concept of the “data user”. A person is considered a data user if they control the collection, holding, processing or use of personal data. When this person transfers personal data between entities it must comply with various statutory obligations (such as six core DPPs ) regarding any such transfer.
These obligations may arise upon either an intention to transfer, or when activities performed by the data user are subject to laws in other jurisdictions – for instance when exporting personal data to mainland China or the European Union. When this occurs, often an impact assessment must be completed prior to proceeding with any data transfers.
The PCPD has published model contractual clauses designed to address the transfer of personal data between two entities that are both data users or between a data user and his data processor. These can be included as either contractual provisions in commercial agreements between users or as standalone agreements between all data users, with enforcement expected in Hong Kong courts to ensure that terms of data transfers meet requirements under PDPO and its DPPs.
These model clauses contain a key safeguard designed to protect data subjects’ rights and interests by requiring data users to inform each data subject of any classes of people to whom he or she intends to transfer their personal data prior to collecting such information and obtain their voluntary and explicit consent before doing so. This provides essential protection for their rights and interests.
Hong Kong’s approach to encouraging free flow of cross-border business data and its views that increased cross-border data flow is essential to its success as an international trading hub is in line with PCPD’s position regarding these standard model clauses. In contrast to this is the prevailing view in some other jurisdictions such as Europe which views free movement of personal data as a fundamental policy goal and therefore introduced measures to restrict its transfer outside its territory; although, unlike Hong Kong it does not mandate transfer impact assessments before any transfer occurs within Europe itself.