By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-31 08:56:21 | Updated at 2025-04-03 00:46:02
2 days ago
Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has ruled that a group managing several international fashion brands in the city including Paul Smith and Brooks Brothers has violated its ordinance in protecting customers’ data after a data leak affecting nearly 130,000 individuals.
The incident in May last year concerned ImagineX management, a company established in 1992 which managed over 20 international fashion and beauty brands in Hong Kong, Macau, the mainland and Taiwan.
“The Privacy Commissioner found that ImagineX had not taken all practicable steps to ensure that the personal data involved was protected against unauthorised or accidental access, processing, erasure, loss or use,” said Brad Kwok Ching-hei, the watchdog’s chief personal data officer, on Monday.
The company had contravened the Data Protection Principle (DPP) 4(1) of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance concerning the security of personal data, he added.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data’s six rounds of investigation found that the leak had affected mainly two loyalty programs – ICARD and Brook Brothers – managed by the company concerning a total of 127,268 people.
The victims included 100,185 ICARD members and 27,069 Brook Brothers members, who faced their personal data, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth months, genders and nationalities being exposed.
