Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (December 1):
 
Reporter: Can you explain about the eID?
 
Secretary for Innovation and Technology: First of all, I think there is a general misunderstanding about eID. eID is like a master key. The master key is linked to your biometric features, for example, your fingerprint, your facial recognition features, your gait or your voiceprint.  Voiceprint doesn’t mean your voice sound but the way you talk, sort of the emphasis you have.  All of these are through a government platform. We will use it to authenticate the eID when it’s used.  eID itself does not contain any personal information, personal data, zero. But in a virtual world it can be used as a very effective secure key to unlock your personal data stored at various databases, only through your own permission.  And this is a technology that widely recognised by countries like Estonia, even Singapore.  This is a very new technology.  It’s a way that you can be able to access data without revealing the personal identity.
 
Reporter: Do you think it will be popular in Hong Kong?
 
Secretary for Innovation and Technology: Our first plan is to use eID for all eGovernment services. That’s our first aim. As for the individual citizen and also for the private sector companies, we give them the option.  Because in Hong Kong, it is very important that we have to give people the option. We expect some of them will use eID, some of them will probably use their own method. But I believe if eID is developed on track, over the time, eID will turn out to be a very effective way to secure the access to personal data.  Thank you.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

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