Is it legal to record people in public in Hong Kong?
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Quick answer
Legal position
Current starter summary
Hong Kong's PDPO does not prohibit CCTV, but if recording in public or private areas captures identifiable individuals for identification purposes, the user must comply with the PDPO and handle the recording fairly and transparently.
Conditions
What would need to be true
Use should be for a lawful purpose, necessary and balanced; prominent notices should be posted; unnecessary intrusion and places where people reasonably expect privacy should be avoided.
Exceptions
Known carve-outs or edge cases
If a system in a public place is used merely for security and no particular individual is identified or sought to be identified, it may not amount to collection of personal data under the Ordinance.
Penalties
Penalty snapshot
Not specified in cited sources.
Enforcement
How this may be enforced
The PCPD can investigate complaints and handle PDPO enforcement matters.
More rules in Hong Kong
Use the reset build to keep country pages useful even before every row is fully sourced.
download pirated movies
Official Hong Kong sources clearly criminalise some copyright piracy, especially trade or business possession, import or export, and large-scale online communication, but I did not find a clean official statement that directly answers ordinary private end-user downloading of a pirated movie.
stream pirated content
Official Hong Kong sources say the 2022 communication offence mainly targets large-scale online piracy such as illegal streaming of a film for public viewing, but the official material reviewed does not cleanly answer ordinary private end-user viewing of pirated streams.
buy a brass knuckles
Ordinary public purchase of brass knuckles is not lawful in Hong Kong because knuckledusters are prohibited weapons.
buy a pepper spray
Ordinary public purchase of pepper spray is not lawful in Hong Kong because tear gas is treated as arms and possession requires a licence.
Compare this activity in other countries
This makes the rule page useful for comparison without creating a second data source.
Australia
Recording people in public in Australia is not automatically unlawful but organisations and agencies using security cameras or similar surveillance devices generally must comply with privacy rules and relevant state or territory surveillance laws.
Austria
Austria’s Data Protection Authority says photo and video recording needs a lawful basis and proportionality. Recording people in public therefore depends on what is being recorded, why, and how broadly the recording intrudes on others.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina's data-protection authority says video surveillance is processing of personal data and must meet necessity, proportionality and accountability requirements. Recording people in public is therefore not a free-for-all if identifiable individuals are being monitored.
Canada
Recording people in public is not automatically unlawful in Canada but organizations using overt video surveillance still need a specific justified purpose and should use the least privacy invasive measure that works.
About this row
Canonical dataset status
Official sources
Source URLs attached
Reset rule
Why the page is intentionally light
The new site should show a stable layout, a stable route, and clear source slots before the dataset is scaled up again. That keeps management simple and makes later official-source population safer.