The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said that it would not activate the facial-recognition feature of its new smart surveillance system after lawmakers voiced their concerns over privacy issues.
The railway operator on Tuesday announced that it would soon start testing a smart surveillance system at Fengyuan Railway Station in Taichung.
The company said that the system would be mainly used to ensure the safety of passengers in and around railway stations — including detecting any intrusion onto the railway tracks and other restricted areas, abnormal loitering of individuals on the platforms or inside buildings, and suspicious packages — but lawmakers raised concerns that the facial-recognition technology would infringe on people’s privacy.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has been critical of China for abusing human rights through the use of facial-recognition systems.
Ko asked if the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had learned from China by installing the technology to control the public.
DPP legislators sparked controversy in 2017 when they proposed a change to the Household Registration Act (戶籍法) that would legalize the use of iris-recognition systems by offices, Ko said.
The KMT caucus would have strongly opposed the use of facial-recognition technology if the TRA did not acceptably define the conditions under which the technology would be used, Ko said, adding that she was glad that it had decided not to activate the functionality.
KMT Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) said that the Hollywood movie Enemy of the State shows how a government could control people through the mass collection of data and monitoring their whereabouts using surveillance devices.
“China has used surveillance devices to enforce a social credit rating system, while Hong Kong uses the devices to monitor pro-democracy protesters. Is it not strange that what DPP is planning to do is also what China is doing?” Hsu said.
Constitutional interpretations by the Council of Grand Justices have determined that the police cannot stop and frisk individuals without a legitimate reason, and that people have the right not to be monitored in public places, Hsu said.
However, the facial-recognition technology would enable the government to monitor people closely, like “watching goldfish in a transparent fish tank,” he said.
Following the criticism, the Taiwan Railways Administration said that it would not activate the facial-recognition technology, nor would the Railway Police Bureau.
“We will continue to build an environment that is friendly to all railway passengers while ensuring the safety of the transportation system,” the company said.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
A group affiliated with indicted Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) is to be dissolved for monitoring Chinese immigrants in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. Xu, the secretary-general of the Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Service Alliance, was indicted on March 24 on charges of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法). The alliance “illegally monitored" Chinese immigrants living in Taiwan on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Ministry of the Interior is expected to dissolve the organization in the coming days under provisions of the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法), the source said. Xu, who married a Taiwanese in 1993 and became a Republic
Taiwanese shares yesterday posted a record daily gain of more than 1,700 points to close above 40,000 points for the first time, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) amid optimism about the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The TAIEX ended up 1,778.51 points, or 4.57 percent, at 40,705.14 after moving between 39,228.39 and 40,755.52, while the New Taiwan dollar closed up NT$0.038 at NT$31.610 per US dollar, ending three consecutive sessions of declines. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$1.007 trillion (US$31.9 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$66.98 billion
RSS