政壇：睇社論學英文

市民私隱被出賣 禁而不止官有責

Failures to forbid the sell-out of privacy:The government is to blame

私隱專員公署踢爆，香港預防協會過去兩年透過電話直銷，以免費安排客戶接受身體檢查為名，套取了三十六萬名市民個人資料，包括姓名、地址、電話號碼及身份證號碼，在未徵得客戶同意下轉售予保險公司進行直銷。這宗侵犯市民私隱個案性質嚴重，不但涉及轉售個人資料圖利，有關機構更涉嫌冒認政府機構，誤導客戶。出賣個人私隱事件屢禁不止，已難以從源頭阻截資料外洩，勢必對市民造成長期損害。

無疑，港府近年不斷修改法例加強保障市民私隱，問題在於新法例究竟是對症下藥，抑或形同虛設。例如早在○七年實施的《非應邀電子訊息條例》，加強規管預錄式電話直銷，並未將真人電話直銷納入規管，導致近年商業機構競相以真人電話向客戶促銷產品資訊。至於剛實施的新私隱條例則隱藏豁免條款，商業機構只需向客戶發出不反對通知書，已可繼續使用收集的客戶資料直銷。

一法立，一弊生，可謂港府處理市民私隱問題的最佳寫照。一味對法例小修小補，表面上堵塞了一個侵犯私隱的漏洞，卻又留下另一個空子，繼續予不良業者可乘之機，當局對保障私隱立法欠缺通盤考量，才是導致市民私隱屢被出賣的真正原因。

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner disclosed that, in the past two years, the Hong Kong Preventive Association Limited had elicited the personal data of 360,000 citizens, including their names, residential addresses, phone numbers and identity card numbers, through telemarketing that was said to offer the clients free medical check-up service.

The data collected was sold to insurance companies for direct marketing purposes without the consent of the clients. This is a severe case of privacy invasion, involving not only the sale of personal data for profit, but also the allegation that the association had misled the clients by pretending to be a government agency. The repeated failures to forbid the sell-out of personal privacy and the difficulty in intercepting the leakage of data from the source will definitely lead to long-term damage to the citizens.

Surely, the government has in recent years frequently amended the laws to protect citizens' privacy. But the problem is whether the new laws are appropriate measures or just empty shells. For instance, the "Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance" implemented in 2007, which strengthened the regulation of pre-recorded telemarketing calls, did not include real-time person-to-person calls. This has given rise in recent years to the competition among business organizations in live calls telemarketing . On the other hand, the newly implemented privacy ordinance is riddled with exemption clauses which allow business organizations to keep on using personal data collected for telemarketing activities by just issuing a Notice of No Objection to their clients.

Every new law is accompanied by a disadvantage. And this is the best reflection of the government's handling of privacy problem. Seemingly, consistent and minor amendments to ordinances would close a loophole in privacy invasion. However, they also leave another flaw which continues to create opportunities for the black sheep in the industry. The government's lack of comprehensive considerations during the legislation process is the real cause of the sell-out of citizens' privacy.

重要生字

repeated failures to forbid：屢禁不止

empty shells：形同虛設

loophole：漏洞