'Data Security Beefed Up Ahead Of Legco By-election'

The Registration and Electoral Office (REO) said on Friday that it has strengthened its data security measures ahead of December’s Legislative Council by-election.

Authorities also announced 1,000 workers will be deployed to facilitate voting and vote-counting at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on December 18.

The by-election is to fill the voids left by four former councillors, who left to join Chief Executive John Lee's government. Nearly 1,500 Election Committee members will be eligible to vote.

During a Legco panel meeting to discuss the upcoming polls, Business and Professionals Alliance lawmaker Priscilla Leung questioned if officials had done enough to avoid a repeat of what happened in the 2017 Chief Executive election, when two laptops containing the private information of all 3.78 million registered voters went missing.

The computers were never recovered, but officials had repeatedly stressed that the information was encrypted.

In his reply to Leung, chief electoral officer Raymond Wang said the REO has implemented all recommendations made by the Privacy Commissioner following an investigation into the incident.

"We have stepped up training of electoral officers and also our office has adopted some internal technology and security guidelines," he said.

"Use of personal data will only be limited to people who need to know them, or use the data for designated purposes. So we'll be very cautious in our use of data."

Wang added that voting will take place between 9am and 11:30am on December 18.

Voting will close an hour early at the Penny's Bay polling station for those under isolation and quarantine, and the same arrangement applies to stations run by the Correctional Services Department.

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