The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong has released guidelines for employers on the collection and use of personal data arising from the pandemic.
The guidelines include the following:
- Employers must follow the general rule that the measures taken to collect data should be necessary, appropriate and proportionate. The least privacy- intrusive measures should be preferred.
- It is generally justifiable for employers to collect temperature measurements or limited medical symptoms of COVID-19 information of employees and visitors solely for the purposes of protecting the health of those individuals.
- It is justifiable for employers to ask for travel data from employees who have returned from overseas, especially from high-risk areas. Similar to health data, the collection of travel data should be purpose-specific and minimal data should be collected.
- If an employee unfortunately contracts COVID-19, the employer may notify other employees, visitors and the property management office and others without disclosing personally identifiable information of the infected. Under most circumstances, disclosure of the name and other personal particulars of an infected employee in the notice will not be considered as necessary or proportionate. However, it will not be considered as a contravention of the use principle under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (i.e. Data Protection Principle 3) for employers to disclose the identity, health and location data of individuals to the government or health authorities solely for the purposes of tracking down and treating the infected, and tracing their close contacts when pressing needs arise.
- Personal data protection should not hinder work-from-home arrangements, but employers and employees should exercise extra caution because of the transfer and use of documents and data away from the professionally-managed work environment. The Privacy Commissioner makes a number of recommendations in relation to the security of personal data in the guidelines.
The Guidelines are available at the following link:-
https://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/media/media_statements/press_20200330.html
Visit us at www.mayerbrown.com
Mayer Brown is a global legal services organization comprising legal practices that are separate entities (the Mayer Brown Practices). The Mayer Brown Practices are: Mayer Brown LLP, a limited liability partnership established in the United States; Mayer Brown International LLP, a limited liability partnership incorporated in England and Wales; Mayer Brown JSM, a Hong Kong partnership, and its associated entities in Asia; and Tauil & Chequer Advogados, a Brazilian law partnership with which Mayer Brown is associated. "Mayer Brown" and the Mayer Brown logo are the trademarks of the Mayer Brown Practices in their respective jurisdictions.
© Copyright 2020. The Mayer Brown Practices. All rights reserved.
This article provides information and comments on legal issues and developments of interest. The foregoing is not a comprehensive treatment of the subject matter covered and is not intended to provide legal advice. Readers should seek specific legal advice before taking any action with respect to the matters discussed herein. Please also read the JSM legal publications Disclaimer.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.