Friday 15th February 2013

Dear Reader,

As the print and broadcast media crank back up to speed after the holiday break, our campaign to amend the Companies Ordinance and stop abuse of the HKID system seems to be gaining traction.

Please take our opinion poll on HKIDs and Government. Your e-mail and PIN are at the top of this news flash.

We'll be in LegCo on Monday morning at 09:00 to talk about Buyer's Stamp Duty and Special Stamp Duty. You can listen in here and the agenda is here.

RECENT 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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