7/17/2020 CACV73/2020 JUNIOR POLICE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION OF THE HONG KONG POLICE FORCE AND ANOTHER v. ELECTORAL … 38. With respect, in the context of the issue which falls for determination in this appeal, this line of argument fails to give recognition to a person’s right to determine the extent of dissemination of his residential address which forms the essence of the right of privacy in this regard. In most cases, a person can decide whether to provide his residential address for a particular purpose to a particular recipient or institution after making his own assessment as to the balance between the utility of the transaction requiring the disclosure of address and the safeguards (both legal as well as practical safeguards) in place provided by such recipient or institution against the misuse of the information. But there is no such choice if he or she wishes to exercise the right to vote which is a constitutionally entrenched right. As we have seen, a registered elector is obliged to disclose his residential address and the information will then be available for public inspection, failing which he forfeits his right to vote. 39. As regards other kinds of registers or records which contained information on addresses which are open to public inspection, we have not been referred to the relevant statutory schemes and therefore have had no submissions on the extent of public inspection (viz whether the scheme provides for unrestricted public access) and the safeguards in place against abuses in those schemes. Nor have we been informed about the purposes behind permitting public inspection under those schemes. We are therefore unable to, and do not, express any view on whether the incursion upon privacy interest in such schemes are proportionate. 40. However, as Mr Chan quite rightly pointed out, the coverage of such other schemes is not as wide as that for electoral registers. In some of those other cases, a person could freely choose whether to engage in the activities or assume a position which is subject to the relevant scheme. For example, a person can decide whether to become a director or shareholder of a company. In the context of the Land Registry, the address put forward in an assignment need not be the person’s residential address. https://legalref.judiciary.hk/lrs/common/search/search_result_detail_frame.jsp?DIS=128057&QS=%2B&TP=JU&ILAN=en 13/39