2022/06/09 03:00
/ Staff writer, with CNA
A Taipei man can have the names of his parents and spouse removed from his national identification （ID） card, as the Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday granted his request on privacy concerns.
The man, surnamed Chen （陳）, last year applied at the household registration office in Taipei’s Wenshan District （文山） for a new ID card, requesting that it not show any personal information besides his name and ID number.
After the office denied the request, citing Ministry of the Interior regulations, Chen filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to have the decision overturned.
The court ruled partly in favor of Chen, saying that the ministry’s requirement that the names of his parents and spouse, as well as his military service status, be on the card impeded the plaintiff’s privacy rights and contravened the Constitution’s proportionality principle.
The court ruling cited the Household Registration Act （戶籍法）, which in Article 51 says that the national ID card “represents a person’s identity and is effective throughout the country,” and in Article 52 gives the government the authority to stipulate the cards’ format, content and specifications for the photograph on the card.
However, the court denied the plaintiff’s request to have other information removed as well — including his place and date of birth, photograph, gender and address — as these fell within the law’s purview and were constitutionally valid.
Department of Household Registration Director Lin Ching-chi （林清淇） called the ruling “unacceptable” and said he would ask the office to file an appeal.
Lin said the ministry’s ID card regulations are authorized under the Household Registration Act and have been reviewed by the Legislative Yuan.
An ID card that does not include most personal information is likely to be rejected by most people checking the holder’s identity, he added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES