Ted Hui's Privacy Claim Won't Stand Up: Wu Chi-wai

The chairman of the Democratic Party, Wu Chi-wai, said on Thursday that fellow party legislator Ted Hui is on shaky ground when it comes to a privacy infringement allegation he has made against government officials.

Hui made the claim as he sought to justify grabbing a phone out of the hands of a Security Bureau official on Tuesday, running off with the mobile and then searching through it.

Hui, who has now sent a written apology to the officer in question, said he wanted to find out how much information government officials are collecting on councillors. He said he did find a lot of data on the phone, including the time that lawmakers arrive and leave Legco, and he plans to file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner.

But Wu said there don't appear to be any strong grounds for Hui's complaint to succeed.

"I have received the response coming from the Commissioner of the Privacy. According to that particular piece of paper, it comes to the same conclusion as me: talking about being public figures, our presence, to a certain extent, is part of the data that can be collected in the public domain," Wu said.

"It's basically our movement within the public area of the Legco building. In that particular respect, I don't think he has enough grounds to further file complaints to the Privacy Commissioner."

On Wednesday, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung and Security Secretary John Lee both condemned Hui for snatching the phone, saying the action had left the female officer involved extremely upset.