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Online indictment documents seen as danger to privacy

The Judicial Yuan's Law and Regulations Retrieving System exposes information on people involved in legal cases to anyone who uses the search engine, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said yesterday.

Lin told a press conference that the system publicizes the full scripts of indictments as per Article 83 of the Organic Law of Court Organization (法院組織法), but making indictments available to the public in this manner could violate the privacy rights of anyone involved in a lawsuit.

"We have to admit that the search engine offers convenience for data search and is helpful to law research and education, but the Judicial Yuan failed to protect individuals' privacy," she said.

Lin said that by simply typing a name or a keyword, anyone can access full texts of indictments, which could contain personal information about individuals involved in legal cases, including the names of their children or their health conditions.

Showing a search result on the system's Web site to the press, Lin said that the information she was able to retrieve revealed that the person involved in the case was HIV- positive.

By law, the court has to inform the persons involved in a case if the information in the indictment is to be made public, Lin said, adding that any information that cannot be disclosed should be replaced by codenames.

She said that the Judicial Yuan needed to remove any word from the online indictments that could reveal personal information to an interested party.

In response, Kuo Jui-lan (郭瑞蘭), director-general of the Judicial Yuan's Information Management Department, said the Judicial Yuan posted the indictment documents online to "satisfy the public's need for knowledge."

Kuo said that the Judicial Yuan had held a meeting last November, during which it was ruled that personal privacy should also be ensured when the court makes indictments public.

Starting in May, with completion no later than July, the Judicial Yuan will attribute codenames to personal information contained in indictment documents she said.
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