HK privacy watchdog sees surge in doxxing complaints in 2022

Hong Kong's privacy watchdog has recorded 3,848 complaints last year, with an increase of 15% when compared to the previous year. This was mainly attributable to an increase in doxxing complaints following the implementation of the new anti-doxxing regime introduced by the Personal Data (Privacy) Amendment Ordinance 2021 in late 2021. 

According to the the latest figures by The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), out of the 3,848 complaints, 95% involved complaints against private organisations or individuals (3,656 cases), while the remaining 5% were against public organisations or government departments. 

The new provisions criminalising doxxing acts under the PDPO came into effect on 8 October 2021. The amendments empower the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data to carry out criminal investigations, institute prosecutions for doxxing-related offences, and issue cessation notices to stop disclosure of doxxing messages.

From the implementation of the relevant provisions to 31 December 2022, the PCPD handled a total of 2,128 doxxing cases and initiated 114 criminal investigations. 32 cases were referred to the police for further follow-up actions.

As to arrest operations, the PCPD has mounted a total of 12 arrest operations by 31 December 2022, including one in 2021 and 11 in 2022. The nature of disputes leading to the doxxing acts are monetary dispute (50%), work dispute (25%) and relationship dispute (17%). The means used by the doxxers are social media platforms and instant messaging apps (92%), as well as posters (8%).

In terms of data breach incidents, the PCPD received 105 data breach notifications in 2022, with 41 from the public sector and 64 from the private sector. The data breach incidents involved hacking, loss of documents or portable devices, inadvertent disclosure of personal data by fax, email or post, employee misconduct and system misconfiguration. The PCPD initiated 392 compliance checks in 2022, representing a 4% increase as compared to 377 compliance checks in 2021. The PCPD has also received a total of 14,929 public enquiries in 2022. The figure dropped by 15% when compared to 17,651 cases in 2021. On average, over 1,200 public enquiries were handled per month.

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