萬國法律事務所

In an effort to control the Covid-19 pandemic, the Taiwan Government launched the SMS Real-Name Registration (手機簡訊實聯制) to quickly track and record the people’s physical whereabouts.  The information from or in connection with the SMS Real-Name Registration is used for the sole purpose of pandemic prevention.  However, Judge Chang Yuan-sen (張淵森 of the Taiwan Taichung District Court (臺灣臺中地方法院) suspects that some police officers are misusing the information from the SMS Real-Name Registration to investigate criminal cases, which use far exceeds the original purpose and constitutes illegal surveillance that seriously infringes people’s right to privacy and control over their personal information. 
 
In response, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Ministry of the Interior clarified that the information used in criminal investigations was legally investigated and acquired, and stated that the CIB never requested any information related to the SMS Real-Name Registration from the Central Epidemic Command Center, 國家衛生指揮中心中央流行疫情指揮中心 (CECC). 
 
Chen Chung-yen (陳宗彥), the Deputy Commander of the CECC (中央流行疫情指揮中心副指揮官), who is also the Political Deputy Minister of the Ministry of the Interior (內政部政務次長), further explained that if the CIB in ordinary criminal cases needs to surveil or to access the communication information of specific persons , the police must, based on due process of law, request a warrant from the court.  To avoid unnecessary misunderstanding, the CECC has initiatively requested the CIB to inform every level of the police that in the event that any information in connection with a surveillance is collected or otherwise accessed from the SMS Real-Name Registration, the police must exclude such information from any criminal case investigation.
 
In addition, the National Communications Commission, 國家通訊傳播委員會 (NCC) also explained that the SMS Real-Name Registration obtains data from the five main communications businesses and directly provide said data to the CECC and not to any other governmental agency; the CIB accesses the communication information through the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) rather than through the SMS Real-Name Registration.  These are two different and independent systems used to obtain data.  The NCC also emphasized that it will regulate the communications businesses to ensure compliance with the laws with respect to tracking and recording people’s physical whereabouts within the minimum scope of necessity, and will delete such information once 28 days after the collection have elapsed.