Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) yesterday said that her campaign against the Taipeipass (台北通) app has garnered almost 10,000 signatures since Friday, but exposed her to insults and threats by telephone and through social media.
It seems to be a “coordinated attack,” as all the messages follow a similar pattern, she said, citing as an example one saying: “We love the Taipeipass. Do not block the smart city plan. Stop interfering with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).”
Some people had left disparaging remarks and false information when signing up for the online petition, and there have been attempts to disrupt her communications on social media, said Miao, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
She jointly launched the campaign with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), and independent Taipei city councilors Lin Liang-chun (林亮君) and Huang Yu-fen (黃郁芬).
Ko has been promoting the use of the app to access municipal services and said that it should be linked to COVID-19 vaccine information.
Announcing the petition, the four councilors said: “Ko and his officials are heading toward a Chinese style of exercising central control ... including tracking people’s movement, activities and transactions.”
Democratic institutions must respect the right to privacy, they said.
Taipei residents might want the capital to become a smart city, but they do not want “centralized control, tracking and mass surveillance,” they said.
The use of the Taipeipass should be voluntary, Miao said, accusing Ko of increasingly introducing mandatory schemes under the pretext of smart city efforts.
By increasingly collecting personal information of residents, the schemes contravene the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法), Miao said.
The Taipei City Government has been promoting the app as a “one-stop solution” for a large range of services, including as a platform to pay utility bills, taxes, parking tickets, reporting incidents to police and claiming benefits at stores.
The four city councilors said that Taipei residents are forced to use the app when accessing services including borrowing books at public libraries, obtaining student cards, paying school fees, participating in workshops organized by the city government, registering for childcare benefits and entering sports facilities.
Data security advocates have said that the app is prone to breaches that might affect national security, such as when services linked to the app are handled by Chinese firms.
Separately, Taipei city councilors have said that the legal basis on which the app operates and gathers data is unclear.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
RSS