Court rejects police group's bid over voter list

The Junior Police Officers' Association had wanted the court to bar election authorities from publicly disclosing voters' details amid fears of doxxing. File photo: RTHK.

A court has dismissed an application by Hong Kong's largest police group to bar election authorities from publicly disclosing voters' details amid fears of doxxing.



The Junior Police Officers' Association successfully applied for a temporary ban in October, saying the move was to prevent doxxing attacks on officers and their families at the height of the mass social unrest.



They had argued that people could use the information provided on these voter registers and link them to police officers and their families.



But in a judgement published by the Court of First Instance on Wednesday afternoon, Justice Anderson Chow read that the initial challenge was based on the rights to privacy, family, and home under Article 14 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, and the right to vote under Article 26 of the Basic Law.



The judge said these are "enjoyed equally by police officers and all other registered electors in Hong Kong... It has not been suggested that police officers enjoy any better or higher rights to privacy, family and home, or right to vote, than other registered electors or ordinary members of the public."



The judgement said the right to vote is an important political right, but there is no evidence to suggest that anyone – police officer, family member or otherwise – has been deterred from registering to vote because they were worried about their address being made available to the public and candidates.



The judgement acknowledged that although doxxing campaigns are "appalling, reprehensible and hideous", there was no evidence that people were specifically using the electoral register to target police officers.



The court also said that only "minimal personal information concerning an elector" is contained in a voter register which is open for inspection by the public and election candidates.



Chow said that the majority of the information spread online – including unique identification numbers, job positions, Hong Kong identity card numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts – "could not have come from the registers".



"The extent of interference with an elector’s privacy relates, in essence, only to his principal residential address. Although an individual’s residential address is an aspect of his private and family life, the level of privacy that may be attached to the address is not high."



The ruling was welcomed by Hong Kong Journalists’ Association Chris Yeung, who told reporters outside the courthouse that if the media can't inspect the documents they may not be able to expose problems of vote-rigging.