The nation needs to deal with new forms of digital crimes by providing law enforcement agencies with tools powered by new technologies, a Ministry of Justice (MOJ) official said yesterday in defense of a draft “technological investigation act.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members and some legal experts have condemned the draft act as going backward and infringing on personal privacy rights.
The KMT caucus in a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei called on its members to block the draft act, saying that the government is heading for authoritarian rule and is violating the basic rights of its citizens.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The proposed law could also be used as a tool for political persecution, it said.
“We are worried about pervasive surveillance of interpersonal communications. People will live under constant surveillance by the government’s judicial agencies. We believe there is no need for this draft act,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said.
“The limitations must be defined clearly, even on investigating criminal cases, and the main principle should be minimal infringement of personal privacy,” Judicial Reform Foundation chairman Joseph Lin (林永頌) said.
The goals for the draft act can be achieved by amending the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), he added.
Department of Prosecutorial Affairs Deputy Director Lee Hao-sung (李濠松) told the news conference that the draft act is needed to keep up with new technologies.
“We can review its provisions and make adjustments, as our ministry has the obligation to consult with the public, in line with the government’s insistence on openness and transparency,” Lee said.
“The draft act is aimed at criminals. It is not to be used on the general public, nor will it be used in investigating political cases,” he said.
“We have to deal with new forms of digital crimes in cyberspace, so we need new ways of investigation,” Lee said.
He cited a case from 2017 in which a Coast Guard Administration official installed a GPS tracking device on a boat to investigate allegations of drug smuggling, but was sued by the defendants.
The Supreme Court eventually convicted the official for violating personal privacy, he added.
“It has been found that most of the communications for selling illegal drugs are done through [the messaging app] Line,” Lee said. “However, Line Corp is an Internet service company, not a telecom, and does not have telecommunications hardware equipment on which to install a wiretap. Therefore, under current law, judicial investigators are not permitted to listen in on Line conversations, or see its content.”
“Under the draft act, our ministry would assess varying needs for surveillance. In cases involving lesser infringements of privacy, we could authorize prosecutors for an investigation. For those with more severe infringements, we would need to obtain approval from a court,” he said.
The heads of three major US banks on Wednesday pledged that they would withdraw from the Chinese market if Washington imposed sanctions on Beijing in response to an invasion of Taiwan. JP Morgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told lawmakers at a hearing of the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in Washington that the three banks would follow the guidance of the US government to exit China if necessary. The three bankers made the pledge after US Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer asked the three if they
HIGH STAKES: An attack on Taiwan could prompt a joint response from the US and Japan, and trigger a global conflict that could bring down the CCP, Liu Tai-ying said The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would not be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan for at least another 10 years, Taiwan Research Institute founder Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said on Friday. To occupy Taiwan, China needs to transport at least 300,000 to 400,000 troops across the Taiwan Strait during battle, but it would lack the ability to do so for at least another decade, said Liu, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer and a close aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The challenges that China would face during an attempted invasion of Taiwan would be even greater than those
CHINA CRITIC: Prime ministerial candidate Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner in today’s election, said that she would not renew a Belt and Road Initiative deal with Beijing Italian lawmaker Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner to become the country’s next prime minister, is expected to reverse course on Italy’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan if a coalition headed by her party wins the country’s general election today. “Without any doubt, if there is a center-right government, it is sure that Taiwan will be an essential concern for Italy,” Meloni told the Central News Agency in an interview. Italians are to vote in a snap election triggered by the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi following a failed attempt to get his coalition partners
Taiwanese on average first use pornographic material at the age of 14, an international survey found on Wednesday. Researchers at National Cheng Kung University, who conducted the survey in the nation, said 50.2 percent of Taiwanese respondents said they used pornographic material two to three times per month over the past year. Lin Chung-ying (林宗瑩), an associate professor at the university’s Institute of Allied Health Sciences, said the results indicate that Taiwanese are less sexually active than people in other countries, especially in the West. Taiwanese on average masturbate 10 percent less often than respondents from other nations in the survey, Lin said. The
RSS