Tuesday 12th February 2013
Dear Reader,
Kung Hei Fat Choy! It's that special time of year when officials hand out bribes in red packets to journalists in broad daylight - rather like offering them privileged access to HKIDs under the Companies Ordinance. After 4 days off, you've probably spent enough time eating with your families, so today we have two closely-related articles to chew on.
NEW ARTICLES
HKIDs
and Government secrecy
Webb-site calls on Government to
abandon plans to restrict access to HKIDs, and instead to promote their use as
unique identifiers of individuals and eliminate their misuse as authenticators.
A media exemption would imply media controls. We launch an index of HKIDs which
are already on the web. The Companies Registry and Land Registry should tear
down the pay-wall and provide open online access to all documents. (12-Feb-2013)
Submission to HK
Ombudsman on access to information and records management
Webb-site calls for a Freedom of Information Ordinance, to include provisions on
government record-keeping. There should be an online freely accessible archive
of records, and pay-walls on registries should be demolished. Government claims
to copyright should also be scrapped - we have already paid for what they
produce, and it should not be commercial anyway. (12-Feb-2013)
RECENTLY ON WEBB-SITE
BSD and
SSD 2.0 - submission to LegCo
We dissect the proposed
Buyer's Stamp Duty and increase and expansion of Special Stamp Duty on
residential properties in HK. Government replies to Webb-site reveal that they
don't actually have data to support the discrimination between Permanent
Residents and Non-PRs, even if the duty were constitutional, which it is
not. (5-Feb-2013)
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