Hong Kong privacy watchdog refers 600 cases of doxxing to police

More than 600 cases of cyberbullying and leaked personal data received since extradition bill protests began in June have been handed to police for further investigation, Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog said on Wednesday.

The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said it had received 683 complaints of “doxxing”, the practice of posting a person’s private data online, and cyberbullying, as well as 85 inquiries as of Wednesday. It had transferred 608 cases to the police.

“The doxxing and leaks are large-scale and have started to form a trend, with some cases even involving threats and causing the victim psychological harm,” privacy commissioner Stephen Wong Kai-yi said. More than 70 per cent of the cases involved police officers and their families, including threats against their children, he said.

One example the PCPD displayed at a press conference on Wednesday included an image of a police officer with his child, captioned: “Get ready to pick up from school with a sack”.

“It is absolutely horrendous and unacceptable, especially doxxing with criminal intimidation and incitement for people on the net to commit unlawful acts,” Wong said. However, he declined to say if the data leaks were politically motivated.

Throughout the past two months of protests against the now-abandoned extradition bill, government officials and police officers have been doxxed, with their personal information being posted to social media and printed on posters on “Lennon Walls”, the murals across the city made up of anti-government slogans and artworks.