Exam board passes test in costs check

The privacy watchdog has cleared the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority of any breaching of the rules in accessing Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education candidates' marking records and examination scripts.

That came as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data completed investigations into four complaints by candidates of excessive fees charged by the HKEAA for accessing their marking records and examination scripts. The watchdog determined that the allegations were unsubstantiated.

The four complainants were DSE candidates from the previous year who felt that the fees should be reduced since the HKEAA had changed its practice of providing hard copies to one of providing data electronically via email. As such, they argued, its expenses, such as printer maintenance and stationery costs, should have come down.

"However, the Privacy Commissioner, Ada Chung Lai-ling, found that the fees imposed by the HKEAA for complying with the data access requests were lower than the necessary and directly related costs incurred. These costs included labor, computer operating time and other expenses, but did not include printer operating/maintenance costs or paper and stationery expenses. Therefore, the fees did not violate the Privacy Ordinance," the watchdog said.

Another complaint was that the HKEAA did not use a lower-cost method of issuing electronic copies of candidates' personal data, and instead chose to provide physical copies which involved higher costs.

The complainants alleged this violated the ordinance by charging a levy higher than the minimum fee. However, the investigation found that issuing electronic copies was not feasible or safe, so the HKEAA had only provided physical copies of scoring records and test papers from 2012-2022. As a result, the complaint against the HKEAA was not justified.