“Gen­eral Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion” in the European Union

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply in the EU from 25 May 2018.

While Hong Kong is not in the EU, you may wish to consider taking steps to comply. You may have some of your global audience in the EU, or simply wish to apply good practices to your corner of the web.

In any case, in Hong Kong we have the PDPO, which is a set of principles, contravention of which are not directly criminal offenses (but could result in an enforcement notice from the Commissioner, which is enforceable). We like to see a healthy interwebs, with trust and good behaviour being the norm.

The GDPR is an update to prior rules on how organisations collect and manage personal data. Steps you should consider can be found here. If you need help implementing any of the steps on your website, please get in touch.

As for our own treatment of visitor data:

• If you have messaged us via our contact form or otherwise, we will have your email address on file. We will delete or amend that email address on request.
• If you have ever signed up to the TM mailing list, your email address is held by the Mailchimp service. To stop receiving emails, either click the “unsubscribe” link in an email newsletter or contact us directly.
• Turtle Media uses Google Analytics to anonymously track visitor numbers. This requires the use of small pieces of data called “cookies”. Google promises to comply with all relevant privacy legislation (such as the GDPR) but, if you prefer, you can consider blocking cookies for individual websites.