This Chapter expands on the other states data protection laws within the Asia region. Taiwan, similar to many other nation states throughout the Asian region have a long and complex history that dates back centuries. Privacy as a concept and right has gained traction in Taiwan. It must be noted that this Chapter does not in any way discuss the current political tensions between mainland China and Taiwan. It only examines the current day data protection laws of Taiwan.
They were a prefecture of Imperial China’s Fujian province from the late seventeenth century and formally became a province beginning in 1884. China ceded the island to Japan after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. During World War II, the government of the Republic of China, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and dominated by his Nationalist Party, declared the return of Taiwan to China as one of its aims. What followed, Franklin Roosevelt readily agreed because he wanted China’s help in preserving post-war peace. The Cairo Conference of late 1943 ratified this decision, in the process denying the people of Taiwan a say in their future. Taiwan returned to Chinese jurisdiction soon after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. They have also been ruled and influenced by both the Dutch and Portuguese at various times. Thus their current day legal framework has been influenced by civil and common law traditions.
The right to privacy across the territory of Taiwan is alive. Taiwan has adopted the title of Personal Data Protection Act in 1995 (PDPA). Since then, the PAPDA has only been amended twice, with the most recent changes in 2015. The PDPA generally follows the privacy principles approved by the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) in 200426 and the EU legal framework. The PDPA not only regulates private entities but also imposes rules for data collection, use, and disclosure by the public sector. The PDPA was designed to provide an overarching protection of personal data with an extensive scope but has faced a number of problems regarding its implementation due to incorrect perception of the law. Taiwan have, similar to other states, been grappling to balance the need for national security while protecting personal data. In other words, where a country is threatened by terrorism plans to establish a national biometric database, where all citizens will be required to submit their facial and other physical identifiers for national security or prevention of crime, it is much more difficult to justify a privacy breach. It will not be easy to strike a balance between these prominent interests.
