Statistics on personal data misuse from the Companies Register

Scott Edmunds made this Freedom of Information request to Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was successful.

Dear Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data,

In light of the current proposal on protection of Personal Information on the Companies Register, this cites as one of the main reasons for withholding more data from public inspection is because of of increased reported cases of doxxing and personal data misuse, the LegCo paper citing as evidence:

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data received 1 036 doxxing complaint cases in 2020.

https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr20-21/english...

Of these 1 036 doxxing complaint cases in 2020 how many related to personal information obtained from the Companies Register?

If you don't have this information to hand you are welcome to share my request with any other department that does have this information.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Edmunds

Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

2 Attachments

  • Attachment

    attachment.delivery status

    0K Download

  • Attachment

    Freedom of Information request Statistics on personal data misuse from the Companies Register.txt

    1K Download View as HTML

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

[1]FOI requests at Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data
([Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email])
Your message couldn't be delivered to the recipient because you don't have
permission to send to it.

Ask the recipient's email admin to add you to the accept list for the
recipient.

For more information, see [2]DSN 5.7.129 Errors in Exchange Online and
Office 365.

Diagnostic information for administrators:

Generating server: SG2PR02MB3450.apcprd02.prod.outlook.com

[Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]
Remote Server returned '550 5.7.129
RESOLVER.RST.RestrictedToRecipientsPermission; not authorized to send to
recipient because the sender isn't on the recipient's list of senders to
accept mail from'

Original message headers:

Received: from PSXP216CA0001.KORP216.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM (2603:1096:300:4::11) by
SG2PR02MB3450.apcprd02.prod.outlook.com (2603:1096:4:4a::10) with Microsoft
SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id
15.20.3977.24; Thu, 1 Apr 2021 14:56:29 +0000
Received: from PU1APC01FT062.eop-APC01.prod.protection.outlook.com
(2603:1096:300:4:cafe::9) by PSXP216CA0001.outlook.office365.com
(2603:1096:300:4::11) with Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2,
cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id 15.20.3977.32 via Frontend
Transport; Thu, 1 Apr 2021 14:56:28 +0000
Authentication-Results: spf=pass (sender IP is 104.236.80.204)
smtp.mailfrom=accessinfo.hk; pcpd.org.hk; dkim=none (message not signed)
header.d=none;pcpd.org.hk; dmarc=bestguesspass action=none
header.from=accessinfo.hk;
Received-SPF: Pass (protection.outlook.com: domain of accessinfo.hk designates
104.236.80.204 as permitted sender) receiver=protection.outlook.com;
client-ip=104.236.80.204; helo=accessinfohk;
Received: from accessinfohk (104.236.80.204) by
PU1APC01FT062.mail.protection.outlook.com (10.152.253.51) with Microsoft SMTP
Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id
15.20.3999.28 via Frontend Transport; Thu, 1 Apr 2021 14:56:27 +0000
Received: from alaveteli by accessinfohk with local (Exim 4.84_2)
(envelope-from <[FOI #599 email]>)
id 1lRyDd-000557-NB
for [Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]; Thu, 01 Apr 2021 14:22:45 +0000
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2021 14:22:45 +0000
From: Scott Edmunds <[FOI #599 email]>
To: FOI requests at Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data <[Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]>
Message-ID: <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Statistics on personal data misuse
from the Companies Register
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Return-Path: [FOI #599 email]
X-EOPAttributedMessage: 0
X-EOPTenantAttributedMessage: 90b8344f-f9fd-4c84-99b0-597df4fd6082:0
X-MS-PublicTrafficType: Email
X-MS-Office365-Filtering-Correlation-Id: 10eeb3fe-e719-4d8b-0886-08d8f51e540c
X-MS-TrafficTypeDiagnostic: SG2PR02MB3450:

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]
2. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=...

Sent request to Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data again, using a new contact address.

Mail Delivery System,

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

[Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<[Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data request email]>:
host pcpd-org-hk.mail.protection.outlook.com [104.47.125.36]:
550 5.4.1 Recipient address rejected: Access denied. AS(201806281) [SG2APC01FT043.eop-APC01.prod.protection.outlook.com]

show quoted sections

Sent request to Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data again, using a new contact address.

Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

多謝閣下的電郵。我們將會作出跟進,並給閣下回覆。   

   

因應本地疫情的最新發展,我們與外界會面,以及所有網上、電郵、熱線電話及傳真
服務會回復正常;而公眾講座會繼續透過視像會議方式進行。詳情請瀏覽我們的網
址www.pcpd.org.hk。   

   

我們呼籲市民在可行情況下,盡量以電話、電郵或網上途徑聯絡我們。   

   

對閣下造成的不便,我們謹此致歉。   

   

(以上為電腦自動發出的認收訊息。)   

香港個人資料私隱專員公署   

   

   

Thank you for your email. We shall follow up on your email and reply to
you in due course.   

   

Having regard to the latest development of the local epidemic situation,
all face-to-face meetings with members of the public as well as online,
email, hotline and fax services will resume as normal, while
all our public talks will continue to be held as webinars.  For details,
please visit our website www.pcpd.org.hk.   

   

We appeal to members of the public to contact us by telephone, email or
online channels as far as practicable.   

   

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.   

   

(The above message is generated by an auto-reply programme to acknowledge
receipt of your email.)   

Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong   

 

 

[1]PCPD Banner

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. https://www.pcpd.org.hk/

Natalie POON, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

Dear Mr Edmunds, 

 

        We refer to your application for access to information dated 22
April 2021 addressed to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data
requesting to know of the 1,036 doxxing-related complaint cases received
by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong
(the PCPD) in 2020, how many of them related to the collection of personal
data from the Companies Register.  

  

2.       Of the 1,036 doxxing-related complaint cases received by the PCPD
in 2020, some of them related to the disclosure of addresses and/or Hong
Kong Identity Card numbers.  Public registers could be one of the sources
of the personal data concerned.  However, we have not kept any breakdown
as to which public register was involved.  Hence, we regret to inform you
that we are unable to provide you with the requested information as we do
not possess such information.   

 

3.         Should you have any queries, please contact the undersigned at
3423 6609. 

 

 

Yours sincerely, 

 

 

(Natalie POON) 

Access to Information Officer 

for Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

show quoted sections

Dear Natalie POON,

Many thanks for letting me know there is no data on whether the public register has been used for doxxing.

Regarding the 1,036 doxxing-related complaint cases you say you received in 2020 can I ask:

1. How many of these related to the leaking of HKID card numbers?

2. How many of the names leaked were people listed (i.e. company directors) in the Companies Register?

3. How many doxxing cases have been referred to the HK Police, and of these how many have been related to the Companies Register?

Yours sincerely,

Scott Edmunds

Natalie POON, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

Dear Mr Edmunds,
This is to acknowledge receipt of your email.  We will revert to you in
due course.

 Yours sincerely, 

 
 (Natalie POON) 
 Access to Information Officer 
 for Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Scott Edmunds <[FOI #599 email]>
Sent: Sunday, May 2, 2021 2:58 PM
To: Natalie POON <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Statistics on personal data
misuse from the Companies Register
 
Dear Natalie POON,

Many thanks for letting me know there is no data on whether the public
register has been used for doxxing.

Regarding the 1,036 doxxing-related complaint cases you say you received
in 2020 can I ask:

1.  How many of these related to the leaking of HKID card numbers?

2. How many of the names leaked were people listed (i.e. company
directors) in the Companies Register?

3. How many doxxing cases have been referred to the HK Police, and of
these how many have been related to the Companies Register?

Yours sincerely,

Scott Edmunds

show quoted sections

Natalie POON, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

Dear Mr Edmunds, 

 

We refer to your application for access to information dated 2 May 2021.  

 

Our replies to your requests are as follows:- 

 

1.   Of the 1,036 doxxing-related cases handled by the PCPD in 2020, 134
of them related to the disclosure of Hong Kong Identity Card numbers
and/or addresses, and public registers could be one of the sources of the
data concerned.  The corresponding figure for 2019 is 750.   

 

2.   We do not have information on whether the names of the victims in the
1,036 doxxing-related cases also appeared on the Companies Register.   
 

3.   As of 30 April 2021, we have referred 1,461 doxxing-related cases to
the Police for criminal investigation and consideration of prosecution.
Given the ongoing criminal investigation, we have no information on
whether these 1,461 cases related to the Companies Register. 

 

Should you have any queries, please contact the undersigned at 3423 6609. 

 

 

 

Your sincerely, 

 

 

(Natalie Poon) 

Access Information Officer 

for Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong 

      

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Scott Edmunds <[FOI #599 email]>
Sent: Sunday, May 2, 2021 2:58 PM
To: Natalie POON <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Statistics on personal data
misuse from the Companies Register
 
Dear Natalie POON,

Many thanks for letting me know there is no data on whether the public
register has been used for doxxing.

Regarding the 1,036 doxxing-related complaint cases you say you received
in 2020 can I ask:

1.  How many of these related to the leaking of HKID card numbers?

2. How many of the names leaked were people listed (i.e. company
directors) in the Companies Register?

3. How many doxxing cases have been referred to the HK Police, and of
these how many have been related to the Companies Register?

Yours sincerely,

Scott Edmunds

show quoted sections