E-monitoring of quarantined persons no breach of human rights: Premier Su
ROC Central News Agency
01/04/2021 06:04 PM
Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) The "electronic fence" system introduced recently by Taiwan health authorities to monitor the movements of people in quarantine does not violate their human rights, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said Monday.
"The system has not been implemented to violate people's privacy, but rather to protect the health of Taiwan's 23 million people," Su told reporters, after an inspection of the pork importation procedure at Taipei Port.
The government has imposed strict COVID-19 prevention measures, including a comprehensive set of standard operating procedures for high-risk groups, to prevent a breach of the regulations, he said.
The "electronic fence" is a system that utilizes mobile phone GPS signals to track the location of persons in quarantine, including those arriving from abroad and people who have had close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient.
The issue of human rights violations arose when authorities reported that five people who were supposed to be observing self-health management after their 14-day quarantine had attended a year-end concert in Taoyuan while several others had attempted to enter New Year's Eve countdown events in Taipei and Taoyuan.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) had specifically prohibited such activities for people in home quarantine and those in the self-health management period, following Taiwan's recent detection of an imported case of a new COVID-19 strain that was first found in the United Kingdom.
At the port on Monday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) told reporters that all data collected via the "electronic fence" will be deleted after 28 days, in accordance with the relevant regulations, to protect people's privacy.
On Saturday, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the "electronic fence" had been implemented only after his office had confirmed its legality under the Communicable Disease Control Act.
Legislator Kao Hung-an (高虹安) of the People's First Party expressed similar views Monday in a radio interview, citing the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens.
Under Article 7 of the Act, the head of the CECC is permitted to take actions considered necessary for disease prevention and control purposes, Kao said.
Government authorities have used similar technology to monitor cruise ship passengers, send text messages to Navy officers on goodwill missions, and carry out hotspot analyses, Kao said.
She said, however, that when the COVID-19 pandemic eases, the government should reexamine the criteria for the collection and usage of such data.
(By Wang Hung-kuo, Kuo Chien-shen and Emerson Lim)
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