TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Che-Hung Chen, Doris Lu, Jakob Huang and Meng-Ying Lee, Chen & Lin
Chen & Lin Attorneys-at-Law Bank Tower, 12th Floor 205 Tun Hwa North Road Taipei 105 Taiwan (Republic of China)
Tel: +886 2 2715 0270 Fax: +886 2 2514 7510 Email: dorislu@chenandlin.com Web: www.chenandlin.com
1. Legal and Regulatory Framework 1.1 Overview of Data and Privacy-Related Laws The Data Protection and Privacy Law Sources in Taiwan The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) is the pri - mary law regulating personal data protection. It was first enacted in August 1995, as the Computer-Pro - cess Personal Data Act, and regulated government agencies and certain private sectors. The PDPA has been effective since 1 October 2012 and regulates any person – including government agencies and all pri - vate sector entities – who collects, processes or uses personal data. Privacy and personal data protection are related to the constitutional protection of privacy. In addition to the PDPA, the Legislative Yuan has also enacted certain special data protection requirements in some sector-specific laws, such as: • the Insurance Act; • the Financial Holding Company Act; • the Banking Act;
On 16 May 2023, the Legislative Yuan passed amend - ments to the PDPA to urge non-government agencies (ie, the private sector) to input manpower, techniques and funds for the purpose of fulfilling data protec - tion obligations, and to provide support to relevant enforcement authorities for combating fraudsters. Two main points of the 2023 amendments are as follows: • raising the administrative penalties imposed against non-government agencies for violating the obligation of security and maintenance measures; and • designating the Personal Data Protection Commis - sion (PDPC) as the dedicated competent authority of the PDPA (the Preparatory Office of the PDPC was formed on 5 December 2023, accordingly). On 11 November 2025, further amendments to the PAPA were promulgated; however, their effective date has not yet been determined. The main purpose of these amendments is to align with the PDPC to be established (which is a Preparatory Office now) and to grant the PDPC relevant enforcement powers, includ - ing administrative supervision over both government and non-government agencies, as well as co-oper - ation mechanisms with other competent authorities with regard to supervision on non-government agen - cies. The main points of these amendments are as follows: • the establishment of a supervision mechanism for government agencies;
• the Human Biobank Management Act; • the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act; and • the National Sports Act.
Furthermore, the Trade Secrets Act may apply if the trade secrets of an enterprise are involved. If an offence against computer security is involved, the criminal sanctions of the Criminal Code of the Repub - lic of China may apply. If any national security issue is involved, the National Security Act may apply.
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