The Taipei Department of Education reportedly plans to install facial recognition systems for campus security and smart roll calls in four public high schools: Taipei First Girls’ High School, Taipei Municipal Heping High School, Taipei Municipal Zhong-Lun High School and Taipei Municipal Bailing High School.
The systems were scheduled to run on a trial basis at the beginning of the fall semester, but the news was met with a public backlash, resulting in Information Technology Education Division Director Chen Ping-hsi (陳秉熙) saying that the systems would be installed, but not switched on.
This brings to mind what happened when people discovered that mobile phones of a certain Chinese brand could automatically switch on the camera. The company responded by saying that the cameras would turn on, but not be used. The question in both cases is: Can you believe them?
In May, media reports said that the Taipei City Government would install “smart lampposts” that incorporated facial recognition systems to monitor traffic and to collect and analyze information about gatherings and parades, drawing similar public criticism.
Critics have pointed out that China is proud of using facial recognition systems to monitor and control the public. China has the world’s biggest database of people’s biological characteristics and is creating an Orwellian state where “Big Brother is watching you.”
Western countries have banned Facebook from using facial recognition to collect information about its users amid fears of possible misuse.
However, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is going against the tide of mainstream opinion. He often praises a more authoritarian kind of democracy and even worships dictatorial historical figures.
Ko is keen on “exchanges” with China. Could it be that the kind of surveillance technology that the Chinese Communist Party uses to erode human rights has crept into “Chinese Taipei” on the back of such “exchanges?”
Ko has said that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are “one family,” but does he really want both legal systems to be “one family” too?
Now his administration wants to test highly controversial facial recognition technology based solely on the education department’s internal plan in collaboration with the system’s supplier. Does this not show a worrying contempt for Taiwan’s democracy and the rule of law?
The Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation No. 585 says that “the right of privacy is ... an indispensable fundamental right ... for purposes of ... preventing invasions of personal privacy and maintaining self-control of personal information,” and that “the people have the right to decide whether or not to disclose their personal information, and, if so, to what extent, at what time, in what manner and to what people such information will be disclosed.”
This interpretation was originally made in connection with a controversy over fingerprinting. Now, facial recognition — another kind of biometric tool — is to be directly applied to students who are not yet adults, despite authorities having no legal mandate to do so.
The Taipei City Government’s motives are dubious, and it is suspicious that it plans to try the technology out on a soft target first. Besides, are the 15,000 surveillance cameras that have already been installed in Taipei not enough?
Facial recognition has implications not just for privacy, but also for national security. Any such system can only work in conjunction with a massive database. By cross-referencing information and processing it with powerful computers, operators can know all about anyone’s everyday activities.
This personal information is irretrievable: Once it has leaked, there is no way of putting it back, so it can have a sizable effect.
Furthermore, the central government has betrayed the public’s expectations on numerous occasions. At one time, it said that the electronic toll collection system on freeways would not be used to catch vehicles going over the speed limit, but today it is used for that purpose.
Ko likes to say that people should trust the government, but the reality is not so simple.
Chen Kuan-fu is a graduate student in National Taipei University’s Department of Law.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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