Octopus Card - Privacy Abuse

Privacy Abuse

On July 15, 2010, despite Octopus' claims to have never sold data, a former employee of the CIGNA insurance company claimed CIGNA purchased records for 2.4 million Octopus users. On July 20, Octopus acknowledged selling customers' personal details to Cigna and CPP, and started an internal review of their data practices. Octopus Holdings made 44 million Hong Kong dollars ($5.7M USD) over 4.5 years. Roderick Woo Bun, Hong Kong's Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, gave radio interviews and called for transparent investigation, but his term expired at the end of July 2010. Allan Chiang Yam-wang was announced as the incoming Privacy Commissioner. This news was met with protests and international outrage, due to his prior history of privacy invasions involving cameras used to spy on his employees at the Post Office, and disclosing hundreds of job applicants' personal data to corporations. Outgoing Privacy Commissioner Woo pledged to finish a preliminary report on the Octopus privacy abuse before his term ends, and called for a new law making it a criminal offence for companies to sell personal data.