Civic groups yesterday spoke out against a proposed “Big Brother” amendment that would give elected representatives the right to snoop on an individual’s personal information.
An amendment to the Computer-Processed Personal Data Protection Act (電腦處理個人資料保護法), which would allow elected representatives to gather information for the purpose of investigation without the knowledge of the person concerned, is being reviewed by the legislature.
The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and several other groups held a press conference yesterday to express their opposition to the amendment, condemning it as a serious threat to privacy and human rights.
On Monday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) defended his proposal, saying elected officials have the right and responsibility to protect citizens from corruption.
Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), a member of the Judicial Reform Foundation, expressed skepticism about whether there was a need for this “emperor clause.” He said that the current version of the act already provided for exemption of related regulations if obtaining an individual’s personal data was “in the public interest,” as stated in Article 8 of the act.
“If an elected representative, in order to promote the public interest, seeks to expose corruption, the [Act’s] ‘public interest’ clause would not prohibit him from exercising that right,” Kao said.
Academics also questioned whether the act would be effective without the creation of a government agency dedicated to a systematic approach to protecting an individual’s privacy.
Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰), an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae and a member of TAHR, said: “[The amendment] does not distinguish between having a proper reason for gathering personal information and obtaining consent from the person whose personal information is the subject matter.”
The TAHR has drawn up a “people’s version” of the amendment and has asked Democratic Progressive Party legislators to bring up the proposal at the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee meeting.
At a press conference later yesterday, Hsieh again defended the proposal, saying that the bill also provided for a fine of up to NT$5 million (US$144,700) and a punishment of a maximum of five years in prison for legislators who illegally collected or misused personal information.
He said the bill would release lawmakers from the obligation of having to inform an individual in advance when his or her personal information is used to question government officials at the legislature.
He said that it did not mean legislators would be allowed to look up personal data without restriction.
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