New legislation should be passed prior to the adoption of new digital identification documents to address privacy and legal concerns, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said yesterday, adding that it would boycott a Ministry of the Interior workshop today.
“The meeting will only discuss the card’s appearance, the level at which it should be used, how it should be issued and information security — but not whether it should be digitized or whether new legislation is needed,” association secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) said, calling the meeting’s agenda “pointless.”
“Our concern is that these cards will result in citizens being forced to leave a digital signature whenever they use a service,” Chiu said, citing similarities to new cards used in China, where citizens are required to use digital IDs to register online accounts, purchase tickets and check into hotels.”
“Information security is not just a technical issue — the bigger issue is whether the government can monitor citizens’ data and whether the information could be abused,” Chiu said.
“If more government and private services require the use of a digital signature, any choice over whether to activate digital functions could quickly become a moot point,” she said.
Ministry plans call for changing paper national IDs into “eIDs” integrated with the Citizen Digital Certificates commonly used for the online payment of taxes.
“We are still in the process of collecting opinions and should submit a plan to the Executive Yuan by the end of the year,” Department of Household Registration Deputy Director Jair Lan-pin (翟蘭萍) said, when asked if legal revisions were being considered.
People will not be forced to activate the Citizen Digital Certificate function on their ID cards, she said, adding that if this function is not activated, they would be “similar” to current IDs, but with enhanced measures against counterfeiting.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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