ID card lawsuit revives debate about personal data protection in Taiwan

身份證訴訟在台灣引起關於個人資料保護的爭論

Man seeks to remove photo, gender, address, spouse and parents’ names on ID card


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A lawsuit in Taipei has reignited the debate about to what extent one’s personal information should be disclosed on the National Identification Card.

The Taipei High Administrative Court on Wednesday (June 8) ruled in favor of a plaintiff surnamed Chen (陳) to have the names of his parents and spouse removed from his new ID card. His request to drop other data, including his date and place of birth, photo, sex, and household address, though, was rejected.

Chen, who is an attorney in Taipei, said the lawsuit was intended as a civil campaign to shed light on the country’s questionable ID policies. He expressed gratitude to the court for the partial win he scored and said he has yet to decide whether to appeal, per Liberty Times.

According to Chen, the excessive disclosure of personal data has resulted in harm on some of his clients, which he did not elaborate on. He also wants to highlight the risk of having an individual’s identity revealed through doxing methods involving the ID photo.

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI), which oversees the issuance of ID documents, noted that the issue goes beyond personal data protection. The Household Registration Act (戶籍法) requires 14 items of personal data to appear on the ID card and technically Chen’s request is simply not applicable without a system change.

Also, the information is needed to prove the identity of the cardholder without which many legal affairs can not be processed, said MOI official Lin Ching-chi (林清淇).

Taiwan in 2019 set out a plan to issue a digital ID card, which stirred up heated discussions about the design and the items of personal data to be left out. The plan, which has caused controversy over cybersecurity and other issues, ground to a halt due to the COVID pandemic and has since been put on the back burner.