Chunghwa Telecom Co (
"We have received some phone calls from our users, who worried that their personal confidential data might have been divulged," said Leng Tai-fen (
The state-run telecom operator has been under growing public pressure to compensate consumers after a scandal in which several employees with Chunghwa Telecom allegedly profited from selling people's personal information to organized crime syndicates, according to an investigation conducted by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office.
To fend off an increasing number of consumer complaints, the Cabinet-level Consumer Protection Commission yesterday morning announced punitive measures and a restitution agreement by Chunghwa Telecom and other telecom service providers if consumers' information was found to have been leaked.
Under the proposal, Chunghwa Telecom would offer consumers the free number-changing program before the prosecutors release the name list of the victims.
Other service providers -- including Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), KG Telecommunications Co (和信電訊), Trans Asia Telecommunications Inc (泛亞電信) and Taichung-based Mobitai Communications Corp (東信電訊) -- agreed that consumers can change their phone numbers and get their monthly basic fees remitted for up to three months if they are identified as identity-theft victims.
Chunghwa Telecom also agreed to write off the victims' call charges for up to three months depending on the degree of the damages caused.
Currently, Article 28 of the Law for the Protection of Computer-managed Personal Information (
The aggregate sum for the compensation is capped at NT$20 million, according to the law.
But the Consumers' Foundation (
At a press conference held late yesterday, the foundation said that each victim should be paid NT$100,000, with no upper limit on the total paid out by each company.
Responding to claims that removing limits on restitution would spell bankruptcy for many companies, the foundation said that it thought bankruptcy would be just punishment.
"Companies that allow their customers' information to be stolen by employees deserve to be eliminated and go bankrupt," foundation secretary-general Cheng Jen-hung (
The government must also increase the transparency of its investigations, the foundation said.
"Government parties are not doing enough. They cannot just try to patch up the situation by claiming that they are working on the situation," said Hsieh Hung-man (
"Up to now, the public still does not know the exact scope of the leakage and has no way of finding out whether or not their own information was compromised. The Consumer Protection Commission needs to re-examine its methodology," he added.
The foundation therefore called on the industry to make public apologies, announce the volume of information leaked and notify compromised customers. It also said the government should release the results of their investigations to the companies.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS