Thu, Jul 07, 2022 page3

• Health database access must be limited: groups

  PRIVACY: Human rights advocates said that academic researchers have been using the database without people’s consent for decades

  • By Hsieh Chun-lin and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Allowing access to the national health database for academic research projects is unconstitutional and an infringement of a person’s right to privacy, human rights advocates said yesterday.

  As a nation under the rule of law, the government must safeguard the borders of democracy and human rights, Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) executive Tu Yu-yin (涂予尹) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

  “Use of the national health database and any action that infringes on the right of an individual to privacy must not breach these borders,” he said.

  

  Human rights advocates warn yesterday that allowing access to the national health database for academic research projects would be an infringement of a person’s right to privacy.

  Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

  “Researchers have been accessing information from this database for years, but such use has no legal basis whatsoever,” Tu said.

  “Only authoritarian nations would allow access to personal information without a person’s consent,” Open Culture Foundation director Lee Hsin-ying (李欣穎) said.

  “We must not set up a compulsory database on all citizens. It should be done through prior, informed consent by each individual,” Lee said.

  The rights advocates’ demand came ahead of a decision by the Constitutional Court later this month on a request for interpretation of the law on privacy. Oral arguments by both sides had taken place in April, with rights campaigners urging the grand justices to rule that personal information can only be accessed for research under constitutional protection and under international rules governing academic research ethics.

  Tu said that researchers have for 20 years been accessing the National Health Insurance Administration database for academic projects and studies, which arose from provisions under the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) allowing government agencies to use it.

  “Furthermore, the information contained under the National Health Insurance can be linked to an individual’s medical and hospital records, as well as their tax return, income and financial records. There is no place to hide; every citizen’s life details can be accessed,” Tu said.

  TAHR lawyer Weng Kuo-yen (翁國彥) said if the grand justices rule in their favor, it would be a milestone for human rights protection in Taiwan, “because it would be the first constitutional interpretation of a case in which every citizen is a plaintiff in the litigation.”

  “Why is the government obliged to fulfill requests for personal information from the national database to satisfy researchers’ demand? In looking at safeguarding the public’s rights and to curtail government abuse of information use, the nation should seek to balance the needs between medical research and a person’s right to privacy,” Weng added.

  Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎), secretary-general of Amnesty International Taiwan, one of the groups that filed for the constitutional interpretation, said that personal National Health Insurance information granted for use by a third party has been ongoing for years.

  “Yet no consent was obtained from any individual, and it has no legal authorization. This is a serious infringement on each person’s right to privacy. It is also a violation of the principle of prior, informed consent of human subjects of medical studies, and their right to opt out of these studies,” Chiu said. “The government should work to convince people about the significance and use of collecting information into such a national database, rather than enforcing the compulsory collection of personal medical data that can be accessed and used by a third party.”

  Human Subject Protection Association in Taiwan executive Lin Lu-hong (林綠紅) said the health insurance database must make changes to protect the rights of all citizens, who the government is taking advantage of due to a lack of awareness among the public.

  “We hope this constitutional interpretation can grant people the right to protection and to make their own decision about their own medical records and related information,” Lin said.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Dozens of Taiwanese missing in China

  • 2

    Chinese who disrupted HK event deported

  • 3

    Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh badge a hit at Japan festival

  • 4

    PRC could not be ‘motherland,’ William Lai says

  • 5

    Donovan’s Deep Dives: China is already at war with Taiwan and countries across the globe