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HONG KONG: A former Hong Kong telecommunications worker was jailed on Tuesday (November 3) for posting personal details of police officers and their families during major protests last year, the first such conviction linked to political unrest.
Chan King-hei, 33, was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted last month of illegally obtaining and disclosing personal data stored on the computers of his former employer, Hong Kong Telecom.
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Posting personal data online, known as doxxing, became a common tactic used by both sides of Hong Kong’s political divide during protests last year.
Police became a key target for protesters as clashes broke out, especially after officers stopped wearing identification badges, while government loyalists have also upset critics of Beijing.
During their investigation, the police discovered personal information, including the identification card and phone numbers, as well as the residential addresses of the officers and their families on Chan’s mobile phone.
They also discovered that he had downloaded files from his company’s computers.
Some of the personal data was later shared on a Telegram channel dedicated to exposing the personal data of police officers and pro-government figures, the court said.
Hong Kong was convulsed by seven consecutive months of protests last year calling for more democratic freedoms and police accountability.
With the backing of Beijing, the authorities rejected concessions and more than 10,000 people were arrested.
The courts are now full of prosecutions and Beijing imposed a radical new security law on the restless city in June.
The measures have quelled mass expressions of dissent, but the underlying causes of the unrest remain unaddressed.
A 25-year-old immigration official is currently being prosecuted for allegedly using government computers to access the personal information of more than 220 people, including police officers, senior officials, judges and their families.
A shady and sophisticated website called HK Leaks has also stepped up its harassment of government critics, especially since the new national security law came in.
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HK Leaks has so far released the personal data of more than 2,000 people it deems guilty of various “misdeeds” against China. Registered on a Russian server, it is specifically designed to evade prosecution, experts say.
“It is regrettable that acts of doxing often lead to cyberbullying or even criminal intimidation of victims and their families,” Personal Data Privacy Commissioner Ada Chung said after Tuesday’s sentencing.
