Lawyers hail court ruling that Taiwan’s digital ID scheme needs special laws

Taiwan’s government must go back to the drawing board to address the weaknesses in its digital identity scheme highlighted by a court ruling against it earlier this year, say a team of lawyers.

Implementing a planned digital ID scheme in Taiwan without citizen consensus and the enactment of special data protection laws could give room for human rights violations and data breaches, a Taiwanese court ruled in May.

The ruling has received approbation from three counsels who represented a group of citizens in the lawsuit against government. The lawyers shared their thoughts on the court verdict in an article published this week by legal publication Lexology.

It should be recalled that the lawsuit was brought against the government by at least 58 Taiwanese in August 2020 when it became clear that the Ministry of Interior was adamant to calls against the project. The government had been banking on Article 52 (1) of the Household Registration Act.

The lawsuit, plus pressure from other quarters, forced the government to finally suspend the digital ID project in January 2021, while the hearing on the case continued in court.

In May, the court recognized, among other things, that digital footprints produced by the digital ID would leave trails that could have an impact on citizens’ personal data profiles.

In their legal opinion, the three counsels hold that the court ruling will push the government to “adopt a humble attitude and make scientific and rigorous preparations to win the public’s acceptance of the technological changes that are changing society.”

They believe that having specific laws on data protection as well as other institutional and governance reforms as suggested by the court, is critical because “digitalization brings its own challenges, in particular, to privacy and information security.”

Taiwanese politicians also recently criticized a move by some municipal offices to procure biometric attendance machines either made or assembled in China and Thailand on data privacy and security grounds.

Article Topics

data protection  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  lawsuits  |  legislation  |  Taiwan