The Taiwan Jury Association on Wednesday called for the government to review the Executive Yuan’s anti-COVID-19 location tracking system and to establish a legal basis for the system to better uphold people’s rights.
Taichung District Court Judge Chang Yuan-sen (張淵森) on June 20 wrote an article for online media saying that police were using the system to track suspected criminals, which proved that the Central Epidemic Command Center’s promise that the information would not be used outside of disaese prevention to be false.
Taiwan Jury Association president Chen Wei-hsiang (陳為祥) in an online news conference on Wednesday said that the act of tracking citizens is in itself undemocratic and only tolerated as a special measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, but without a proper legal basis it poses a severe threat to democracy.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chang Chyi-lu (張其祿) said that the legislature had cut NT$500 million (US$17.86 million) from a proposed National Communications Commission budget specifically due to human rights concerns regarding the location tracking system.
Chang said that he would draw up a proposal to demand that the Ministry of Health and Welfare issue a report on how the data is being used.
The center has been given extraordinary and unmitigated powers under Article 7 of the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) and it should collaborate with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior to issue a clear ban on the use of location tracking data in criminal investigations, he said.
District courts should also be on their guard when issuing approvals to track suspected criminals, he added.
Lawyer Lu Cheng-yen (呂政諺) said the center’s statement that the system would not be used in this way had no legal backing and only amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) would be able to “fix” the situation.
Judges and prosecutors would have to carefully deliberate whether requests to use such information should be approved prior to the amendments passing, Lu said.
Aletheia University Department of Law associate professor Wu Ching-chin (吳景欽) said that it is imperative that the Communication Security and Surveillance Act strictly prohibit personal data obtained from disease prevention location tracking systems being used for other purposes.
If the tracking system loses credibility among the public, it could lead to breaches in pandemic prevention, as the public would no longer trust or use the system, Taiwan Forever Association researcher Peng Chih-cheng (彭至誠) said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as