Taiwan Mobile was fined NT$100,000 on Wednesday for violating the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) by divulging personal information of one of its service subscribers to an irrelevant third party.
National Communications Commission spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said that the complaint was filed by a Taiwan Mobile user.
“The user said that he went to one of the telecom’s retail stores to handle some business. He later discovered that the retail store manager had forwarded his personal information on a Line message to a store selling communication devices that is not affiliated with the telecom,” Wong said.
The company should have handled the customer’s requests itself because it was directly related to the services offered by the company, rather than passing on information to an irrelevant third party, Wong said.
“We hope that the penalty will teach all telecoms a lesson,” Wong said.
Under Article 20 of the act, a non-government agency can only use personal information in accordance with the scope of the specific purpose of collection provided.
Any person who contravenes the article is subject to imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of not more than NT$1 million (US$31,287) or both.
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