December 1996. At that time, Hong Kong was the first jurisdiction in Asia to have a dedicated piece of legislation on personal data privacy. As at August 2014, eleven other jurisdictions in the region have similar legislation. Globally, at least 104 jurisdictions have enacted data protection laws. This trend reflects the growing recognition by governments of privacy as a fundamental human right. It also underpins the challenges generated by the pervasive use of new information and communications technologies in today’s digital society, which has enabled the collection and use of vast amounts of personal data with phenomenal ease and efficiency. No doubt, technological innovations and applications such as the internet, social media, mobile applications and cloud computing have created great economic and societal values, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises in ways beyond our imagination. At the same time, they also pose immense risks to privacy and raise serious concerns about the protection of personal data.