Data, Privacy, and the Consumer

If you live in Hong Kong, and you are used to receiving daily calls from eager telesales executives hoping to sign you up for the latest hair re-growth or slimming treatments, or the cheapest long distance calling plan for eight countries you have never been to, let alone know anybody living there worth talking to, then things must be eerily quiet right now. The phones simply do not ring.
 
For this we can thank (or blame, depending on which side of the fence you sit) none other than Octopus Rewards and the latest privacy and personal data scandal to wash up on the shores of the fragrant harbour.
 
In only a matter of days, politicians and the local media had tried, sentenced, and executed Octopus in public after it was revealed that the company was (shock, horror) sharing consumer data with its rewards partners. However, in the frenzied media storm that followed, consumer crusaders and self-appointed guardians of Hong Kong’s morality overlooked a few simple facts: Octopus actually did nothing that breached the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Nor did it do anything else illegal, or come to that, immoral. No data was sold (it was rented in the same way the direct marketing industry worldwide has been doing for almost half a century), nor was any data shared without the consent of the data subject – the consumers who are the members of the rewards scheme.
 
In fact, the only thing that Octopus was guilty of was poor communication about its activities after the fact. And for that heads rightly rolled. So what are the facts? ...
 
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