Media Statements

International Conference on Big Data Highlights the Importance of Embracing Privacy in the Digital Era

(10 June 2015) (10 June 2015) Over 250 privacy regulators, policy makers, government and business leaders, ICT professionals as well as privacy advocates and academics across the globe attended the International Conference on Big Data from a Privacy Perspective ("Conference") today to explore the protection of personal data privacy in the big data era. The Conference was organised by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data with a view to finding ways for organisations to adopt a privacy-assuring strategy to ICT applications and in particular, big data analytics.

Presenting his welcome speech to a full house at the Conference, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Mr Allan CHIANG remarked, "Digitisation and other advances in technology have led to the phenomenon of "big data". Vast quantities of data are gathered, stored, linked and analysed with phenomenal ease and efficiency. No doubt big data can bring enormous benefits as organisations use it to unleash powerful analytic capabilities. But there can be profound ramifications for privacy and data protection."

"For example, big data analytics is more concerned with correlations in discovering patterns and identifying trends than establishing exact causalities. It can therefore wrongfully label individuals, stigmatise protected classes, and perpetuate societal prejudices and discrimination."

Mr CHIANG stressed, "To confront these challenges, organisations engaged in the use of big data to enrich the quality of life and enhance business success must have due regard to consumer privacy and data protection. They should consider privacy not an impediment to innovation and progress but, rather, a competitive differentiator that wins customer trust and loyalty."

The officiating guest of the Conference, Advisor to the Chief Executive on Innovation and Technology and Non-official Member of the Executive Council, Hong Kong SAR Government, the Honorable Nicholas W. YANG said, "As we enter the Age of Big Data with powerful social media platforms, we also face the challenging issue on privacy and data protection. This Conference represents a timely and serious attempt to address a big and potentially controversial issue in Big Data. As we move forward in a rapidly evolving technological world, we must take a pause to look at the more human related issues. This is to ensure that the deployed and adopted technology will not only do well but also do good, by creating both economic and social benefits."

The Conference presented an international panel of distinguished speakers. They comprised privacy regulators from the United States and Australia, academics and privacy professionals from think tanks and multi-national corporations.

Various issues related to the use of big data were addressed, ranging from legislative controls, innovative approaches based on risk benefit analysis, to ethical information governance. More details of these speakers and abstracts of their presentations are available at: www.pcpd.org.hk/privacyconference2015/speakers.html

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