New national electronic identification cards (eID) are to be released from July next year, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday.
Regional trial runs for issuing the cards are to be held from January to June next year, before the nationwide release, Hsu said at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
Residents in Hsinchu City, Penghu County and parts of New Taipei City, including the Banciao (板橋) and Jhonghe (中和) districts, would be eligible for the trial release, he added.
Photo: screen grab from the Ministry of the Interior’s Web site
Regarding information security concerns, Hsu said that a wide range of tests would be conducted before the eID system goes online.
Using the eID for civic services would not create a record in the ministry’s database, as the records would be maintained by the agencies with which it was used, in compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法), he said.
Software and hardware for the system would be maintained in accordance with the Information and Communication Security Management Act (資通安全管理法), he said, adding that the Central Engraving and Printing Plant would manufacture the cards at a secure location, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co would produce the chips.
Anti-counterfeit features and additional mechanisms to protect personal information contained in the chip would also be in place to safeguard people’s privacy, Hsu said.
The fee to upgrade a traditional ID card to an eID is NT$300, which would increase to NT$900 the second time a person applies for an eID, he said.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿) said that spending NT$900 to obtain an eID would be a burden to members of the public.
Hsu said that this price was already close to the production cost of the cards.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS