各位IT界朋友：

公開資訊取平衡 人才討論值參考

休會的日子，社會上的突發事情不能留待復會後才處理。早前個人私隱專員公署發表報告，指剛獲得本年度香港資訊及通訊科技獎的手機應用程式『起你底』整合和配對來自公共登記冊的個人資料供一般公眾搜尋，違反公開原意，嚴重侵犯私隱。業界對報告的反響很大，事實上過往都有私人公司、律師行提供相關尋查服務，所以「起你底」也非首創。

有朋友事後告訴我，他十多年前已替這些公司編寫程式。既然如此，為何如今套用到手機平台就算作侵犯私隱？蔣專員強調儲存公開資料不違法，問題在於使用方式，但卻假定「律師有專業判斷去理解搜尋得的資料所以沒問題」，無疑是雙重標準。狹窄的使用原意亦對公開資料的創新使用構成重大打擊。就此我會繼續與相關業界朋友討論，尋求讓條例與時並進的相應調整，尋求保障個人私隱與創新公開資料之間的平衡點。(詳細報導：蘋果日報 1 2  信報專訪 )

除此之外，我希望與各位IT界朋友分享另一項工作進展。年初我曾就政府向互聯網供應商索取或要求刪除用戶資料提出質詢，及後香港大學新聞及傳媒研究中心按答覆再向政府深入跟進，公布亞洲首個以政府資料為本的《香港資訊公開報告》。我認為這是第一步，未來我將會在議會內繼續跟進，推動政府公開更多資訊，提高政府運作的透明度和保障網民的自由和權益。

最後，衷心感謝出席上星期「香港資訊科技界人才發展研討會」的講者和朋友，會上各方面的意見交流，對我來年的議會工作有重要的參考價值。我認為討論反映社會各方面對IT界的期望出現落差。公眾不了解IT界的前景，僱主又請不到合適人才，而IT從業員和學生更因看不清前景而卻步。我會繼續就的業界前景發起更多相關討論，希望各位繼續支持。

莫乃光

晴報專欄—IT天下
八月九日：新媒體併吞舊媒體
八月十二日：交通燈倒數器
八月十三日：繽紛維基公關災難
八月十四日：激化香港以挾天朝
八月十五日：首個政府資訊公開報告
八月十六日：整合公開資料何以違規？
八月十九日：IT人才發展有前景
八月二十日：數據收集筒
八月二十一日：鼓勵創意的胡蘿蔔
八月二十二日：雲端與雪櫃
八月二十三日：公共領域個人資料須平衡
八月二十六日：未能在綫的三分之二
八月二十七日：創業家女朋友
八月二十八日：IT • 前景 • 專業認證

資本壹週專欄—立會珠璣
八月八日：本港IT業界到前海的發展機遇(續)
八月十五日：資訊公開與透明度
八月二十二日：「起你底」下架 公開資料運用受打擊

Dear IT friends,

Concerns over open data in the public domain and ICT manpower

There are a number of ongoing concerns during our Legco summer break. Two weeks ago, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data published an investigative report about "Do No Evil," a mobile application that received an award at the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2013, saying that it 'had seriously invaded privacy' by making publicly available litigation and bankruptcy data searchable by the general public. Many friends in the ICT sector raised their concerns to me, pointing out that reference checking and due diligence services had been providing similar functions by law firms for years. This app is hardly the first.

A friend actually admitted to designing similar database programs for law firms over a decade ago. That's why it is hard for us to understand why transferring such database functions to a mobile phone app would constitute 'a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy'. Commissioner Allan Chiang emphasises that it is legal to store publicly available data, but how to use such data is another matter. He assumes that "lawyers would use their professional judgment when they search the data," but isn't this a double standard? My view is that there should be a review of how personal data in the public domain should be regulated or exempted in the current ordinance. I will continue to seek views to help strike a better balance between protecting personal privacy and reusing data in the public domain, which is critical to the growing open data movement.  (For more details: Apple Daily 1 2 HKEJ feature story - Chinese only)

Also, earlier this year I questioned and received the reply from the Hong Kong government about the number of times each department made requests for user data and/or content removals. Subsequently, the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of HKU followed up with these government departments to obtain further details and released the Hong Kong Transparency Report this month, the first-of-its-kind in gathering, analysing and publishing legally available data. This is an important step in documenting the state of transparency of the Internet and I will continue the effort in this direction, to promote further openness and protect netizens' freedoms.

Finally, thanks to all who attended and supported our "Development of IT Manpower in Hong Kong" seminar last week. The insights of our speakers and valuable feedbacks from the floor gave me much food for thoughts. It reflected a gap between the expectations and the reality about our ICT sector -- while most of the public do not have a good understanding of our sector's value and prospects, many employers find it hard to attract suitable talents. I will continue with these conversations and turn them into appropriate actions.

Charles Mok