Amnesty International Taiwan yesterday called for the establishment of a dedicated oversight body for the government’s planned electronic identification card (eID) program, citing potential privacy and security concerns.
The NT$3.3 billion (US$118.45 million at the current exchange rate) eID program was initiated by the Ministry of the Interior to replace national IDs with cards containing electronic chips that store personal information.
The government initially planned to introduce the IDs in October last year, but the launch was postponed due to the local COVID-19 outbreak, and criticism of the project for lacking public consultation and transparency in the tendering process.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Amnesty International Taiwan secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) told a news conference in Taipei that academics and human rights groups were concerned over the possible risks of using an eID, including the potential for data leaks and government abuse of personal information.
“In Taiwan, we still have not established comprehensive mechanisms and a legal framework for cybersecurity. Under such conditions, forcing the eID scheme on the public could result in serious problems such as the invasion of privacy and the leaking of data on individuals,” she said.
“It also makes it very easy for government agencies to track all aspects of people’s daily lives and enables tight authoritarian control on society,” Chiu added.
Citing a study on the eID scheme that drew on other countries’ experiences with such programs, she said that Germany passed laws to restrict the scope of such IDs, including where and in what capacity the data contained in them could be used.
Chiu said that the ministry often cited the use of eIDs in Estonia as an example when promoting the scheme.
However, Estonia suspended the eIDs of 800,000 people due to a security threat in 2018, she said. There were news reports last month regarding hackers that allegedly breached the system and stole nearly 300,000 ID photographs from Estonia’s database.
Along with calling for new cybersecurity laws and an independent regulatory body to oversee the program, Chiu and others demanded that the government allow people the choice to continue using traditional IDs.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) added that the use of eIDs also presents national security concerns due to the constant threat of attack from hackers in China.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said the scheme must consider privacy concerns and potential human rights issues.
“The current laws and regulatory bodies are insufficient for security protection and safety for use of eIDs,” he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
RSS