Greetings, fellow privacy professionals.

Hong Kong was privileged to have an all-star-filled ISACA Asia Pacific conference in early April, where the IAPP was present and able to spread the word on the ongoing importance of privacy. The convergence of cybersecurity and privacy was discussed, and fellow panelists and I discussed the impact and the areas of growing concern.

One such area relates to the massive growth of internet-of-things devices, the cybersecurity, privacy issues and risks to all. With the significant drop in production costs of sensors and cameras, we have seen IoT devices with embedded sensors/cameras become ubiquitous with everyday life — from wearables, household gadgets to children’s toys. Just this week, an Australian company that sells smartwatches, which allows parents to remotely monitor their children, had to shut down its service after hackers were able to breach through vulnerabilities to track and change the child’s location while gaining full access to personal identifiable information of the parent. And just this week, one of Hong Kong’s top celebrity couples is now embroiled in a scandal in regards to a driver who made a racy recording of the pop icon with another woman (not his wife…) in the back passenger seat. The hot debate now includes the rights of the passengers (victims) and whether the driver who recorded the video was in breach of Hong Kong laws. 

In other news, the IAPP will hold our very own Data Ethics KnowledgeNet Meeting & Privacy After Hours, Thursday, 23 May, with a focus on ethical accountability and artificial intelligence. Data ethics has become a hot topic recently, and for a good introduction into data ethics, I encourage you to view an IAPP web conference recording here to register.

Finally, great to see the