Are students allowed to read recommendation letters written for them? As a relatively new assistant professor,
I'm beginning to write recommendation letters for a few students.
Recently, a student asked me to write a recommendation letter for him.
The web link which was sent to me contains text which reads:


  Please note that, under the provision of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance of Hong Kong, information contained in your reference report will be shown to the applicant upon request.


This was extremely surprising to me,
because it was my impression that in the US,
all recommendation letters are private
(i.e., the student is not able to read them).
Even though I am employed in Hong Kong, not in the US,
I had expected that this practice would be the same in my current country.

Questions:


Am I correct in my understanding that typically students are not allowed to read their recommendation letters?
If it is the case that the student would be able to read the letter,
should that affect what I write in the letter?
Legally, in the USA, students are entitled to access their educational records.  (I assume that there are similar regulations in some other countries.)  This poses an obvious problem with letters of recommendation, the contents of which may ideally be unknown to their subjects; this makes it possible for the recommender to give completely honest evaluations and discourages students from "shopping" for the most positive references.

The solution is that students normally waive their right to view the recommendation letter.  Most colleges now have online recommendation systems for references to use, and there is always a prominent notice that the student has waived access to the letter.  I have never had to write a letter when this waiver was not in place.  I know a couple colleagues, however, who have gotten recommendation requests that did not include the waiver; their solution was to write a polite e-mail to the student, reminding the student to waive access.  (That the faculty involved would not be willing to write the letter without the waiver may or may not have been made explicit.)