Octopus Card company's CEO
denies lying <!-- headline-->
28-07-2010
Prudence Chan grilled by legislators who asked why she lied about
selling Octopus card holders' data to third parties.
Photo:RTHK <!-- content -->The Chief Executive Officer
of the Octopus Card company, Prudence Chan, has rejected
accusations by lawmakers that she was lying when she denied selling
the personal data of 1.9 million cardholders to third parties. Ms
Chan had said earlier that the company had not sold any personal
information of cardholders to anyone. But she later backtracked and
admitted the company had earned HK$44 million by selling the data.
Ms Chan insisted the company had adopted what she called a wrong
definition of the word "selling".
The Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council's Security Panel,
Democrat James To, said he expects his colleagues to consider
invoking special powers to investigate the Octopus Card company as
the whole picture hasn't yet come out. He said the public would
have a much clearer picture if the Legislative Council proceeds
with an investigation, coupled with the results from three ongoing
probes launched by the Privacy Commissioner, the Monetary
Authority, and the company itself
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, said the
government was very concerned about the controversy surrounding the
Octopus Card company. Mr Tsang, who's in Sichuan to oversee
earthquake reconstruction work funded by Hong Kong, said he'd
contacted the Privacy Commissioner and hoped the special hearing
he's conducting would be able to find out what happened, and
prevent a similar incident from happening again. <!-- content
end -->
