At Legal Week's Corporate Counsel Forum Hong Kong, a panel of senior in-house lawyers explained how they are responding to Hong Kong's tough new data protection laws. Elizabeth Broomhall reports

It would be an understatement to say that recent changes to Hong Kong's data privacy rules were a wake-up call for companies doing business in the region.

The strict new Personal Data Privacy Ordinance (PDPO), which came into force on 1 April, has banned companies from using personal data in direct marketing without getting consent from the people being targeted. This threatens to curtail businesses' advertising campaigns and flood IT departments with opt-out requests.