The Executive Yuan’s decision to implement the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in two stages was unconstitutional and stands in contempt of the Legislative Yuan, academics and civic groups said yesterday.
“The decision has violated the principle of separation of power of the five branches enshrined in the Republic of China Constitution,” Taiwan Democracy Watch (TWDEM) director Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群) said.
The Cabinet proposed revisions to four articles of the Personal Data Protection Act and decided that the legislation would take effect in two stages.
Photo: CNA
Approved by the legislature in April 2010, the act was promulgated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). However, it has yet to take effect because of controversies surrounding the revisions of four articles, which the Ministry of Justice has said would be difficult to implement and have not been approved.
Chiu Wen-tsun (邱文聰) of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said that the Executive Yuan should have demanded a redrafting of the legislation if it thought it was difficult to implement.
The revision to Article 54 suggested removing the requirement that says financial institutions must inform individuals about the personal information they have that individuals have not provided within one year after the act takes effect. The revision stipulated instead that financial institutions would be mandated to inform individuals of the data they possess if they use or process the information.
The Cabinet revised Article 41 of the act by removing criminal penalty for violations of certain articles of the act when the irregularities were not conducted for the purpose of profit.
Chiu said the revised Article 54 makes it too easy for an institution to get by while the Article 41 only punishes the ones who provide or sell personal information, but not the ones who collect and handle information.
An additional clause also allows certain forms of information collection that “promotes public interests,” which would be “a blank check allowing undue data collection,” Chiu said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) and former DPP legislator Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) both condemned the administration’s “selective implementation of laws,” saying that would be an infringement of the legislative branch.
“If the administrative branch can choose which part of the legislation to implement, then we don’t need a Legislative Yuan at all,” Huang said, adding that allowing the Executive Yuan to do so would “open a Pandora’s box” because every government agency would follow its example and begin to ignore legislation at will.
Chen Wei-lien (陳維練), director of the justice ministry’s Department of Legal Affairs, said the ministry would like to see the entire law implemented.
“However, certain parts of the legislation are vague and difficult to define and therefore hard to implement,” he said.
Chen added that Taiwan could become the country with the strictest laws on personal information protection in the world under the current proposals.
If the definition and regulation was not clear enough, there would be many controversies once the law is implemented, he said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS