Recording and consent
Recording a session in Hong Kong.
A participant in a Hong Kong conversation may record it, and the Personal Data Privacy Ordinance sets what may then be done with the recording. That is the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Cap. 486, and the sentence a practitioner says out loud before recording is the same one in every country on this site.
This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Laws change. If the answer matters to your business, check with a lawyer in your own country.
01The sentence
Say this, out loud, before anything else is said.
I am going to record this session so I can write you a proper report afterwards. Is that all right with you?
It is the same sentence everywhere, because a specific disclosure followed by a direct question is what recording guidance favours over a vague notice, and because everybody in the session agreeing is safe in every jurisdiction on this site. What changes by place is who has to answer it.
02Who has to agree
In Hong Kong the rule is one party.
The statute the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Cap. 486
The Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance governs interception by public officers and does not reach a private practitioner recording their own session. The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance is the instrument that does. Its data protection principle 1 requires collection to be necessary, lawful and fair, and requires the person to be told the purpose on or before collection. Principle 3 then forbids using the data for a new purpose without prescribed consent, which has to be express and voluntary.
Tell the client the purpose on or before collection, which is what the permission sentence does, and do not later use the recording for something you did not name. That second rule is the one a marketing idea usually breaks.
03A client under 18
What changes when the person in the session is a child.
The Privacy Commissioner's guidance is that consent from a minor should be obtained from a parent or guardian where the minor cannot understand what is being asked, and it expects a controller working with children to take extra care over how the explanation is phrased. For a paid session with a client under 18 in Hong Kong, ask the guardian and hold the answer.
04The data law
The recording is personal data under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Cap. 486.
The Ordinance was amended in 2021 to criminalise doxxing, and the Privacy Commissioner has enforcement powers to match. For a practitioner the operative principles are the first and the third: tell the person the purpose at the time of collection, and do not use the recording for anything else without asking again. Principle 4 requires practicable security steps against unauthorised access.
05What Slide Practice does
The audio goes as soon as the report is written.
At upload the practitioner confirms on screen that everyone in the session agreed. That confirmation is stored, and the footer of the report prints the date it was given.
Session audio is deleted as soon as the write-up is made. The The text of what was said, written out from the recording. stays with the The written page a client receives after a session: what was covered, what went well, what they agreed to do, and what is next., on the client's own page, and both are kept until the account is closed. Closing an account starts a 30 day window, at the end of which everything is deleted rather than archived.
Nothing is drafted from a recording until the practitioner has confirmed that everyone agreed, and nothing reaches a client until a person has read it. The whole of what is kept, and for how long, is on the security page and in the privacy policy.
06Where this came from
Two primary sources, and neither of them is us.
- Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance Cap. 486, Hong Kong e-Legislation
- Data protection principles, Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data
This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Laws change. If the answer matters to your business, check with a lawyer in your own country.
Nearby
- Recording a session in California
- Recording a session in Florida
- Every jurisdiction, and how permission works in the product
- What the report itself looks like, practice by practice
Bring one recording you already have permission for, and read what comes back. No account and no card.