This is a guide to obligations of companies under the Hong Kong Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, accompanied for direct comparison by the text of the ordinance. Within the text, it describes the Ordinance in plain English to show how the average data user can comply.

Cross-references can be read immediately. Every reference to a specific paragraph, section, subsection or Part is linked to the text referred to. Using your browser, you can jump to a reference, read it and go back to where you started from. The full text of the Ordinance is included with our commentary.

Each mention of a word or term having a specially-defined meaning has a hypertext link to the definition in the Ordinance. Terms often do not have exactly the normal meaning in the context of the Ordinance. If the Commissioner says ‘you must correct these personal data’, you might not realise that you can delete them and still satisfy him: The definition of ‘correction’ includes ‘erasure’.

How does it work? . . . intranet on a disk

We use ‘browser’ techniques from the Internet and the World Wide Web, but they run entirely on a computer in your office, like a mini-intranet. No Internet connection or server is required. You will need a copy of Netscape Navigator 2.0 or later version, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 or later version (evaluation copies of both these browsers are available free from Netscape and Microsoft respectively, at the time of writing).

A bonus . . . Searchable versions of the Ordinance Text included

Does it work in Chinese? . . . Partly