萬國法律事務所

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan on 18 April 2005 passed a preliminary review of a revision of the Computer-Processed Personal Data Protection Law, which has been renamed the Personal Data Protection Law. The draft revision enlarges the definition of personal information and the enhances the scope of protection by including medical care, genetic, physical examinations, criminal records information and sexual behavior information as “personal information” and by deleting the limitation on protection to “computerized information”.

The draft stipulates that unless certain legal conditions are satisfied, individuals and entities are prohibited from collecting, processing, or utilizing personal information belonging to others. Under the draft revision, non-government entities conducting marketing activities are required, at the time of the first marketing act, to afford the relevant parties a method of rejection. Information defined under the draft as “personal information” cannot be used without the written authorization of the individual, and blanket permissions to use such information are not permitted.

According to the draft revisions, government agencies can be authorized to dispatch officials to conduct on-site inspections of offending non-government organizations that make use of personal data in illegal ways. Additionally, the draft revision increases the maximum fine that may be imposed for the illegal use of personal data for profit from the present NT$ 50,000 (approximately US$ 1,667) to NT$ 5 million (approximately US$ 1,666,667), and increases the to five years the maximum duration for which an offender can be imprisoned from the present term of three years.