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Personal data being
sent to Beijing, legislator says
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The personal information of millions of Taiwanese smartphone users who have
installed Chinese applications could be sent to Beijing, a lawmaker warned
yesterday, demanding that the government to ban public servants from using
Chinese-designed apps.
Chinese smartphone and Web applications WeChat, QQ, Weibo, Taobao and Alipay —
social media and e-commerce platforms that are popular in Taiwan — are required
by Chinese laws to send personal information and user-generated content back to
servers in China for security checks and for content to be filtered, DPP
Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told a press conference.
Chinese telecommunication laws require Internet service providers to store and
report content which “jeopardizes national security and unification,” among
others things, to the authority.
“More than 6 million Taiwanese users of mobile text and voice messaging
communication service WeChat, developed by China’s Tencent and registered in
Taiwan as a Hong Kong company with Chinese investment, have been monitored by
Beijing,” Chen said.
While US Internet service provider Yahoo succumbed to Beijing’s pressure and
provided the personal information of four Chinese dissidents to Beijing in 2006,
he said, Wikipedia and online search engine service provider Google both refuse
to be monitored by China.
Additionally, Chinese companies’ practices have violated the Personal
Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法), he said.
“The government should make a decision on whether it’s keen on protecting
Taiwanese people’s privacy,” he added.
Chen said the government should prohibit public servants from using
Chinese-designed software and demand that service providers notify users about
how their personal information is to be handled.
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