Yang Chongwei (left)
The Office for Personal Data Protection (GPDP), the Public Security Police (PSP) and the Judiciary Police (PJ) held a joint press conference yesterday afternoon following Jason Chao’s detention.
The media has repeatedly asked GPDP’s assistant coordinator, Yang Chongwei, to explain how the civil referendum organizers have violated the Personal Data Protection Act (the Act). Nevertheless, the assistant coordinator failed to clarify the matter, only repeating that the organizers were not collecting personal data legally because their purpose was “illegitimate”.
He referred to the verdict of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI), as well as articles five and forty of the Act, claiming that the civil referendum is not recognized or protected by law.
“Therefore, under the current legal regime of Macau, there is no such system of referendum. The law also did not authorize the relevant organizations to hold the so-called civil referendum in Macau. As a result, when the relevant organizations are collecting and processing personal data with the purpose of [organizing] a civil referendum, it is an illegitimate purpose,” he said.
Yang added that since the purpose is illegitimate, the relevant data collection and processing has also violated the Act.
He also claimed that GPDP released a statement last Friday, reminding the referendum organizers not to use civil referendums for the purpose of collecting personal data.
However, when journalists asked him to explain why a civil referendum was an “illegitimate” reason when TUI ruled that it is not illegal, Yang Chongwei only cited article five of the Act repeatedly without naming any other reasons.
Furthermore, he did not provide any further explanation as to why GPDP did not intervene in another referendum organized by the New Macau Association in 2012 regarding political reform. Yang Chongwei simply claimed that the individual cases are not comparable.
Regarding the civil referendum website that was still operating despite the detention, a PJ spokesperson said that they will let the judicial authorities decide the manner in which to handle the website.
After the press conference, the media tried to ask Yang Chongwei for further clarification, including whether GPDP is deliberately misinterpreting the TUI ruling and whether he received orders to act against the referendum. But the assistant coordinator did not address these questions.
He added that whether residents have violated the law by voting in the referendum “is another question.” JPL
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