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Codes of Practice/ Guidelines

Code of Practice on the Identity Card Number and other Personal Identifiers

2.3 A data user should not collect the identity card number of an individual except in the following situations:
     
  2.3.1 pursuant to a statutory provision which confers on the data user the power or imposes on the data user the obligation to require the furnishing of or to collect the identity card number;
     
  Note1: For an example of a statutory power to require the furnishing of ID card number, section 5 of the Registration of Persons Ordinance (Cap. 177) confers on a public officer the power to require any registered person in all dealings with Government to furnish his ID card number and, so far as he is able, the ID card number of any other person whose particulars he is required by law to furnish.
     
  Note2: For an example of a statutory obligation to collect an identity card number, section 17K of the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115) provides:
     
    "(1) Every employer shall keep at the place of employment of each of his employees a record of:-
     
    (a) the full name of the employee as shown in his identity card or other document by virtue of which he is lawfully employable; and
     
    (b) the type of document held by the employee by virtue of which he is lawfully employable, and the number of that document."
     
  2.3.2 where the use of the identity card number by the data user is necessary:
     
    2.3.2.1 for any of the purposes mentioned in section 57(1) of the Ordinance (safeguarding security, defence or international relations in respect of Hong Kong);
       
    2..3.2.2 for any of the purposes mentioned in section 58(1) of the Ordinance (the prevention or detection of crime, the apprehension, prosecution or detention of offenders, the assessment or collection of any tax or duty, etc.); or
       
    2.3.2.3 for the exercise of a judicial or quasi-judicial function by the data user;
       
    Note: An example of the exercise of a quasi-judicial function would be the Administrative Appeals Board hearing an appeal brought to it by an individual under the Administrative Appeals Board Ordinance (Cap.442).

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