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.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS