The ""information superhighway"" and personal data: towards a new legal and conceptual framework for the protection of privacy in a digital world

Emeritus Professor Wacks, Raymond Ivor   (Principal Investigator)

56

1997-07-01

355000

The ""information superhighway"" and personal data: towards a new legal and conceptual framework for the protection of privacy in a digital world

null

N/A

HKU 7212/97H

General Research Fund (GRF)

1997

Completed

To study the following: 1) Do conventional justifications for the protection of ""privacy"" and forms of legal protection generated or contemplated need to be reconceived? 2) Does the new digital technology call for only minor adjustments to our intellec tual and legal framework? 3) What sorts of argument may be necessary to sustain the importance of the value of ""privacy"" in the digital present and future? 4) Do the (often imprecise) legal and conceptual support systems for both ""privacy"" and - since communication is involved - free speech, adequately capture the range of interests and expectations that the electronic age promises? 5) What are the limits of the law in safeguarding electronic ""privacy""? 6) What impact will the provisions of the Euroopean Directive (particularly those in respect of ""transborder data flow"") have on Hong Kong in view of our recently enacted Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance? 7) With an increasing quantity of data moving between Hong Kong and China, will the People's Republic of China will need to adopt similar legislation, and how might this be achieved?