On 9 September, staff of Sai Kung District Community Centre, a volunteer training event organised by the Sai Kung District Office, lost a portable device (USB) containing the personal particulars of 10 participants at the City University Library. The CFS reported the incident to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner after 50 days and to the District Office yesterday (8 December).

The District Office stated that it had severely reprimanded the contractor for not reporting the incident and the failure to report the error in a timely manner, and had telephoned the affected persons to apologize and suspend the activity, and requested the contractor to submit a detailed report, and if there were no satisfactory measures, it would not be allowed to bid or organise other activities under the Department.

Staff of the Sai Kung District Community Centre, the contractor, lost a portable device (USB) containing the personal data of 9 participants at the City University Library on 10 September. (Profile picture)

According to the District Office, the event involved was the Sai Kung Youth Ambassador Training Programme 2023/24 – Sai Kung Pilot Leader Volunteer Training Programme, organised by the Sai Kung District Community Centre, a non-profit-making district organisation.

The Department received a notification yesterday from the Centre that a staff member of the Centre had lost a portable device (USB) at the City University Library on 9 September, containing information on a youth volunteer training activity organised by the Centre, including the names, ages, gender, contact numbers, email addresses, residential addresses, names of schools or institutions attended and guardians and contact numbers of 10 participants.

The District Office was also informed that the CFS reported the incident to the Police on 9 September and to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on 12 September.

Saigon Navigator Activity Live Report. (Sai Kung District Community Centre Facebook)

The District Office (Home Affairs Office) yesterday (22 December) notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Police of the incident, and successively contacted all affected participants and their families to apologize and explain the incident, and a hotline of 6278 0536 was set up for enquiries by the persons concerned, and the District Office suspended the above activities with immediate effect.

The District Office apologizes for the inconvenience caused to the affected persons and will conduct a detailed investigation into the occurrence of the incident and the contractor's failure to report the error to the District Office in a timely manner, and the District Office has severely reprimanded the contractor and has requested the contractor to submit a detailed report and take all necessary measures to prevent further leakage of the relevant information. The District Office will not allow the contractor to participate in bidding or organise other activities until the contractor fails to take satisfactory measures to ensure that similar incidents do not recur.

Sai Kung District Community Centre. (Sai Kung District Community Centre Facebook)

The Sai Kung District Community Centre also issued a notice on Facebook last night to explain the data breach, apologize to the affected persons, and said that it has immediately taken internal contingency measures, including notifying the affected data subjects in phases and reporting to the law enforcement authorities and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

The Centre said it would arrange timely assistance and support to all affected persons and remind relevant persons to identify calls, verify authenticity and be vigilant when receiving unknown or suspicious phone calls, emails or SMS, and not to click on links or attachments in suspicious emails or SMS.

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