The government should evaluate the standards for obtaining personal data for COVID-19 prevention after the pandemic ends to allay privacy concerns, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安) said yesterday.
Kao made the remark during an interview with radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) in response to public concerns about the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) “electronic fence 2.0” system that was launched last week.
The system is intended to detect people who attend major public events while under self-health management orders.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The CECC on Dec. 22 announced that people under self-health management are banned from large events, and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the system would be used to find people who contravene those rules.
More than 30 people under self-health management were detected near the Taipei City Government’s New Year’s Eve event, and seven people under self-health management were asked to leave concerts by rock band Mayday in Taoyuan on Thursday and Friday evening.
After public concerns were raised about the system, the CECC on Saturday said that it is only used to detect people under home isolation, home quarantine or self-health management.
Kao, a former vice president of Hon Hai Technology Group’s Industrial Big Data Office, said that similar technology has already been used to control the spread of COVID-19.
She cited the monitoring of cellphone signals picked up by base stations to track the movements of passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship early last year.
The CECC used that information to issue text message warnings to people whose mobile devices were detected in the areas where the passengers had been, she said.
Kao said that legislators had debated the legality of the use of such technology when reviewing the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例).
Lawmakers at the time decided to include a clause in the act allowing the CECC to implement necessary response actions or measures for disease prevention and control, so that the center could use personal data in the interest of protecting public health, she said.
“However, once the pandemic is over, what the standard for using personal data is remains a question to be answered,” Kao said.
People would need to consider the government’s use of highly confidential data and whether the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and other regulations can protect them, she added.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the “electronic fence 2.0” system is never used to check people’s personal data or messages, and that it is standard procedure as part of COVID-19 prevention measures to use the system to detect whether a few high-risk individuals have breached regulations.
Personal data collected as part of COVID-19 prevention efforts would be destroyed after 28 days, in line with regulations, Chen said.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS