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Questions raised over
leak of soldiers’ data to firms
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) yesterday
said the Ministry of National Defense and other government agencies have leaked
personal information about military personnel to a private human-resource firm.
Citing a report from an unnamed soldier, Huang said an inter-agency employment
enhancement program leaked information about military personnel getting ready to
leave the service and look for jobs without the troops’ permission, which would
be a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Each military unit undergoes an annual performance review, and troops had to
submit personal information as part of a review out of fear that “they wouldn’t
receive their service discharge orders,” Huang told a press conference.
“We all understand what happens in the military. You follow orders from your
superior with no questions asked, especially when it involves the performance of
your unit,” Huang said. “However, this practice is a breach of human rights
because secrecy of personal information is protected by law.”
The employment-enhancement program was a collaboration of the defense ministry,
the National Youth Commission, the Veterans Affairs Commission and the Council
of Labor Affairs to assist soon-to-be-discharged -personnel in finding a job.
Yes123.com, which won the NT$2.1 million (US$72,725) bid from the Youth
Commission this year to organize the program, used the information obtained from
the defense ministry’s database to send spam to soldiers, Huang said.
The Personal Information Protection Act, which was amended in May last year,
states that information collected by a government agency should “be used in
accordance with the scope of its job functions.”
Colonel Yen Hua-hsing (嚴華興), from the ministry’s General Staff Headquarters,
told the press conference that all military personnel participated in the
program, which is in its 16th year, and submitted personal data of their own
free will.
However, for the first time in 16 years, personnel were able to register for the
job-hunting process through the military’s closed manpower system rather than
having to fill in paperwork — a time-saving move aimed at helping the troops,
said Shih Jian-chu (施建矗), director of the youth commission’s Second Department.
Given the questions over the legality of transferring personnel information from
the military’s database to a commercial one, Yen agreed to consider excluding
the participation rate from annual performance reviews of military units. Shih
said he would re-examine the program’s content to ensure it is legal.
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