Hong Kong’s ‘smart’ ID card -
Resources
Graham
Greenleaf
Director, Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre
Faculty
of Law, University of New South Wales
Last updated: 26 January 2006
Note: These pages
are
provided for teaching purposes for my privacy and surveillance
law
courses, and for public
information,
concerning Hong Kong’s identity card and number. During 2001-02 I was a
Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong Faculty
of Law.
I have an ongoing research project concerning Hong Kong’s ID card, the
results of which have not yet been published, but some of the outcomes
of this
research appear below.
Overviews – critiques of the smart ID card
Since 2003 Hong Kong has been replacing its
laminated paper
ID cards, which have existed since World War II, with a multi-purpose
smart
card. Both the existing ‘dumb’ card and the new smart card are at
the heart of personal data flows in Hong Kong. The core problem of the
Hong Kong
ID system is that its purpose has never been defined with precision
even for the
public sector and not at all for the private sector, and it has
therefore always
been susceptible to ‘function creep’. The smart ID card capitalises
on, and increases the dangers, of this weakness. The following papers
explain
this critique
Other publications
- S
Bailey and N Caidi ‘How much is too
little?
Privacy and smart cards in Hong Kong and Ontario’ Journal of
Information Science, Volume 31 , Issue 5 (October 2005) – abstract
only
Operation of the smart ID
card post-2005
The ‘roll out’ of the smart ID card (ie
replacement of existing laminated paper cards) commenced in 2003 and
will take
until about 2007 to complete. Further details of its operation in
practice will
be provided here in later updates.
The multi-function aspects of the card have not yet
been
very successful. Although not properly documented here as yet, the
position as
known is briefly:
- The
ID card is not yet being used as the driver’s licence, but the Home
Page
says ‘around 2006’.
- Public libraries
are
using the ID card as the library card.
- HongKong
Post has declared that the HKPost digital signature venture was an
expensive
mistake, and they wish to stop issuing digital signatures. The Home
Page explains
how it was
supposed to work.
- The
ESD Life usage of the card has accordingly also not taken
off.
Legal framework of the
smart ID card
Legislation (as amended 2003) to introduce the
smart ID
card
Privacy Commissioner's Code of Practice
(1997)
This Code is made under
s12(8) of
the
Personal Data
(Privacy)
Ordinance.
The
Data Protection Principles in the Ordinance apply to the ID card. The
Code,
though made prior to the smart ID card’s introduction, applies to it.
Passage of the smart ID
card legislation (2001-03)
These background documents are only for those
wanting
detailed information.
Legislative changes
Official background
documents