Harry Elias Partnership Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim commented in the Straits Times article titled “Stuck with a neighbour’s second-hand smoke”. The article was first published on 11 October 2020.
Stuck with a neighbour’s second-hand smoke
Some back proposed ban on smoking near home windows, others say it invades privacy
Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng, who is chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Sustainability and the Environment, suggetsed the ban in an adjournment motion in Parliament last Monday.
In response, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor said the ban would not be possible, citing practical challenges in enforcement that can exacerbate existing concerns about privacy.
The proposed ban, though rejected, was discussed widely online.
Below is an excerpt from the article which features comments by KK:
Lawyers said using cameras to monitor smoking in homes to enforce the ban could create problems.
Mr KK Lim, from law firm Harry Elias Partnership, said “there is an instinctive social and/or political expectation or limit on how far the law can go in regulating a citizen’s private activities”.
Full article can be found here.
Source: The Straits Times
Author: Goh Yan Han. Additional reporting by Hariz Baharudin.