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October 6 2015

Privacy Commissioner Cautions Against Excessive Collection And Use Of Biometric Data

Comprehensive guidance on the collection and use of biometric data, such as DNA, fingerprint and facial recognition data, was released by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Personal Data (PCPD). The Guidance on Collection and Use of Biometric Data (Guidance) was issued in response to increasing use of such data by organisations in Hong Kong. The Guidance was released the day before publication of the PCPD 's Investigation Report: Collection of Fingerprint Data by Queenix (Asia) Limited (Queenix) (Investigation Report), in which the Privacy Commissioner served an Enforcement Notice on Queenix for excessive collection of fingerprint data. The Investigation Report makes it clear that the PCPD considers the collection of biometric data to be a serious issue and unnecessary or excessive collection of such data will not be tolerated. The Guidance clarifies the PCPD 's position and what it considers to be acceptable use and practice of such data