Taiwan Mobile must complete its recall of its Amazing A32 smartphones within two months and pay compensation to customers who purchased them or were affected by a malware problem that led to identity theft complaints, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday, one week after it had ordered the telecom to recall all of the self-branded, China-made smartphones still in use over the security glitch.
It also ordered the telecom to give it weekly updates on the progress of the recall.
The commission’s tougher stance came one day after the Consumers’ Foundation said that Taiwan Mobile should take full responsibility for the security breach and fix the loopholes immediately.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The foundation said that some Amazing A32 owners had filed complaints with it over the recall offer.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau informed the commission late last year that an investigation had found that Amazing A32 smartphones had been implanted with a malware at their manufacturing site, which enabled hackers to obtain the users’ telephone numbers and register with a mobile game apps without the subscribers’ knowledge.
Taiwan Mobile halted sales of the smartphone in July last year after selling about 90,000 units since the model’s launch in April 2018.
Only about 7,600 of Taiwan Mobile subscribers who bought the phones are still using them, the commission said last week.
The telecom had presented those subscribers with a compensation package, offering them a free software update, or the option to subscribe to a different service plan and receive a NT$1,000 rebate on a new smartphone and NT$1,000 deduction from their phone bills.
However, since some subscribers had already become the subject of scam investigations, the commission yesterday asked Taiwan Mobile to say how it would compensate fraud victims for money lost to scammers, as well as other expenses such as having to take days off from work if they were summoned by prosecutors’ offices for questioning.
“Users of the smartphone are still exposed to security risks. After reviewing how Samsung recalled Galaxy Note 7 for defective batteries in 2017 and Volkswagen recalled vehicles with compromised emission control systems in 2015, the commissioners ruled that the company should recall its Amazing A32 smartphones within two months and submit its recall plan to the commission,” NCC Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
“It should try to contact 80 percent of the smartphone users and recall 80 percent of the smartphones,” Wong said.
The company must also report the progress of its recall to the commission every seven days.
In addition, Taiwan Mobile must add a specific icon for the recall on its Web site, and should use every means possible to inform Amazing A32 owners about the recall, including sending text messages and making media announcements, the commission said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man