Article 3-1

The “communications records” as defined in this Act refer to records such as the telecommunications numbers of the sender and the recipient, time of communication, length of use, address, service type, mailbox or location information generated by the public telecommunications network after the user or the telecommunications user uses the telecommunications services.

 

The “communications user information” as defined in this Act refers to the user or telecommunications user name, number of identification document, telecommunications number and information filed in the application, for any type of telecommunications service.

 

The term "network traffic records" as used in this Act refers to non-communication content records, including the communication equipment identification information, Internet address and location information, communication time, connection traffic and number of data packets, domain names, application service types and protocols, and other records generated by the public telecommunications network after the user or telecommunications user uses the telecommunications service.

Article 5

An interception warrant may be issued, if there is sufficient evidence that the accused or the suspect is involved in one of the following crimes, which may severely endanger national security, economic order or social order, and that there is reasonable belief that the content of his/her communication is relevant to the case being investigated, and that it is difficult or there are no other methods to collect or investigate the evidence:

1. The offenses are punishable with a minimum of a three-year fixed-term imprisonment.

2. Offenses as stipulated in Article 100, Paragraph 2 preparing to commit civil disturbance, Article 101, Paragraph 2 preparing to commit civil disturbance with force, or Article 106, Paragraph 3; Article 109, Paragraphs 1 and 4 and the attempted offense in Paragraph 1; Article 121; Article 122, Paragraph 3; Article 131; Article 142; Article 143; Article 144; Article 145; Article 201-1; Article 256, Paragraph 1 and the attempted offense; Article 257, Paragraph 1 and the attempted offense; Article 298, Paragraph 2 and the attempted offense; Article 300; Article 302, Paragraphs 1 and 3; Article 302-1, Paragraphs 1 and 3; Article 319-1, Paragraphs 2 and 3 and the attempted offense in these two paragraphs; Article 319-2; Article 319-3; Article 319-4; Article 339; Article 339-3; Article 339-4 or Article 346 of the Criminal Code.

3. Offenses of corruption for breach of official duty as stipulated in Article 11, Paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Anti-Corruption Act.

4. Offenses as stipulated in Article 2, Paragraphs 1 and 2, or Article 3 of the Smuggling Penalty Act.

5. Offenses as stipulated in Article 82, Paragraphs 1 and 4, or Article 83 Paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.

6. Offenses as stipulated in Article 173 Paragraph 1 of the Securities and Exchange Act.

7. Offenses as stipulated in Article 112, Paragraph 5 or Article 113 of the Futures Trading Act.

8. Offenses as stipulated in Article 12, Paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 and the attempted offense in these paragraphs 1 and 2, or Article 13, Paragraph 2 and 4 and the attempted offense in Paragraph 2 of the Firearms, Ammunition, and Knives Control Act.

9. Offenses as stipulated in Article 102, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1 of the Public officials Election And Recall Act.

10. Offenses as stipulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 47-1 or Paragraphs 1and 2 of Article 47-2 of the Farmers Association Act.

11. Offenses as stipulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 50-1, or Paragraphs 1and 2 of Article 50-2 of the Fishermen Association Act.

12. The offenses prescribed in Article 32, Paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 and the attempted offense in these three paragraphs, Article 36, Paragraphs 1 and 4 and the attempted offense in these two paragraphs, Article 38, Paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act.

13. Offenses as stipulated in Articles 19 to 21 of the Money Laundering Control Act, or Articles 8 and 9 of the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.

14. Offenses as stipulated in Article 3, back section of Paragraph 1, Articles 4 and 6 or Article 11, Paragraph 3 of the Organized Crime Prevention Act.

15. Offenses as stipulated in Article 14, Paragraph 2; Article 17, Paragraph 3; Article 18, Paragraph 3; Article 19, Paragraph 3; Article 20, Paragraph 5; Article 22, the front section of Paragraph 1, Paragraph 4; Article 23, Paragraph 3; Article 24, Paragraph 2 and the attempted offense in this paragraph, Paragraph 4; Article 58, Paragraph 5, or Article 63, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces.

16. Offenses as stipulated in Article 13-2, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Trade Secrets Act.

17. Offenses as stipulated in Article 52, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Forestry Act.

18. The offense as stipulated in Article 46 of the Waste Disposal Act.

19. Offenses as stipulated in Paragraph 2, Paragraph 3 of Article 7 and the attempted offense in these two paragraphs of the National Security Act.

20. Offenses as stipulated in Articles 3 and 4 of Anti-Infiltration Act.

21. Offenses as stipulated in Articles 29, 30, 31 and 33 of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.

22. Offenses as stipulated in Article 44 of the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act.

 

The interception warrant mentioned in the preceding Paragraph shall be applied for, during the investigation, by the prosecutor upon receiving applications from judicial police authorities, or applied by the prosecutor ex officio to the court concerned for issuance. The application shall specify the case numbers starting with the words “Zheng” and “Tang” and information delineated in Article 11, and the reasons, along with relevant documents. If the target of interception is not a user of a telecommunications service, it should be specified in the application. Relevant documents and investigation information about the residence of the target of interception should also be attached, specifying that there is sufficient reason to believe that the contents of communications are related to the case, that prior investigation has been conducted in another manner without success, or that it is reasonably clear that investigation in another manner will not achieve the purpose or creates material risk. The prosecutor should respond within four hours after accepting the application. If the case is complex, the deadline may be extended for four hours with the consent of the Chief Prosecutor. The court should reply within 48 hours after receiving the application case as approved by and transferred from the prosecutor. If the case is in trial proceedings, the warrant should be issued ex officio by the judge. The judge may also enter appropriate instructions to the enforcement officers on the interception warrant.

 

If the application as referred to in the preceding Paragraph is inconsistent with the legal procedure, lacks reason, is not specified or not sufficiently specified, it shall be denied by the court. The decision to deny an application by the court shall not be challenged.

 

The enforcement agency shall file at least one report every 15 days during the period of communication surveillance, describing the progress of conducting the surveillance, and/or if there is the necessity to continue implementing the surveillance. The prosecutor or the judge that issued the interception warrant may also order the enforcement agency to submit a report at any time. If a situation arises where the surveillance should not be conducted continuously, the judge shall consider, by free evaluation based on the rules of experience and logic, withdrawing the issued interception warrant.

 

The application for interception warrant shall be limited to the same target, under the same case number starting with the words “Zheng” and “Tang” or related cases. An application may be filed to seek several interception warrants.

Article 6

If there are sufficient facts to support that the accused or the suspect is committing the offenses of interference with voting as stated in the Criminal Code; the offenses as stipulated in the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act, Articles 7 and 8 of the Act Governing the Control and Prohibition of Guns, Cannon, Ammunition, and Knives, Article 4 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act; the offenses of Extortion and Kidnapping for Ransom, or the offenses of Extortion by means of using bombs, explosives, or poison; offenses as stipulated in Article 3 of the Organized Crime Prevention Act, Article 19 of the Money Laundering Control Act, Article 8 of the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, Article 222, Article 226, Article 271, Article 302-1, Article 325, Article 326, Article 328, Article 330, Article 332, Article 339, Article 339-3 or Article 339-4 of the Criminal Code, Articles 43 and 44 of the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act, in order to protect people's lives, bodies, or property from immediate harm, or there are facts justifying the existence of other communications that are used for contact in order to commit the offenses under Paragraph 1 of the preceding Article and the situation is urgent, the judicial police authority may report to the prosecutor concerned, who will then verbally inform the enforcement agency to give priority to the communication surveillance. However, the prosecutor should inform the enforcement agency of the content as delineated in Article 11, and report to the court concerned within 24 hours and request the issuance of an interception warrant; the prosecutorial agency should designate a Head Prosecutor, or a prosecutor, as an emergency contact to facilitate the investigation in a timely manner.

 

The court should designate a specific communication contact to handle the case, and should issue an interception warrant within 48 hours; if an interception warrant is not issued within 48 hours, the surveillance activity should be halted.

Article 11-1

For the purposes of investigating crimes and collecting evidence, prosecutors and judicial police officers may obtain the communications user information, if there are sufficient facts to determine that it is necessary and relevant to the investigation of the case.

 

For the purposes of investigating crimes and collecting evidence, prosecutors may obtain the communications records or network traffic records, if there are sufficient facts to determine that it is necessary and relevant to the investigation of the case, unless in the situation of an emergency for which prior application is not possible, a written application should be filed with the court for an access warrant. For the matters to be specified in the application, Paragraph 1 of the preceding Article shall apply mutatis mutandis.

 

For the purposes of investigating crimes and collecting evidence, judicial police officers may obtain the communications records or network traffic records, if there are sufficient facts to determine that it is necessary and relevant to the investigation of the case, following an approval by the prosecutor, an application may be filed with the court of jurisdiction for issuance of an access warrant in accordance with the preceding Paragraph.

 

When a prosecutor or judicial police officer investigates an offense punishable by a term of imprisonment of at least 10 years, the offense of robbery, forcible taking, fraud, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, against the computer security, escape or violation of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, Statute for Fire Arms, Ammunition and Harmful Knives Control, Statute for Punishment of Smuggling, Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, Organized Crime Prevention Act, Waste Disposal Act, Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, Money Laundering Control Act, National Security Act, Anti-Infiltration Act, Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act, Public officials Election And Recall Act, Articles 47-1 to 47-3 of Farmers Association Act, Articles 50-1 to 50-3 of Fishermen Associations Act and, if the prosecutor or judicial police officer has sufficient facts to determine that the communication records or network traffic records are necessary and relevant to the investigation of the case, the prosecutor may obtain the communications records or network traffic records, following an approval by the prosecutor, and the restrictions under the preceding two paragraphs shall not apply.

 

After obtaining communication records or network traffic records under the emergency situation prescribed in Paragraph 2, a supplementary application should be filed with the court for issuance of an access warrant within 24 hours.

 

The access warrant shall specify the following:

1. The case.

2. The communications records or network traffic records to be accessed.

3. The validity period and the specification that no access shall be allowed after expiration of said period and that the access warrant shall be returned after access is obtained.

 

The court’s decision to reject any application under Paragraphs 2, 3 or 5 shall not be challenged.

 

The procedure for issuance of an access warrant shall not be public.

 

In case of any need to access the communications records or network traffic records of any target of surveillance under Article 7 and the communications user information, the authority overseeing national intelligence may seek access with the telecommunications enterprises, and those who set up public telecommunications networks or postal enterprises and the restrictions under the preceding 8 Paragraphs shall not apply.

 

For the purposes of investigating crimes and collecting evidence, prosecutors and judicial police officers may, with the consent of the user or telecommunications user, obtain his/her communication user information, communication records or network traffic records, without the restrictions set forth in Paragraphs 1 to 8.

 

The procedures for obtaining communications user information, data storage, data destruction, data supervision, auditing and other related matters shall be set forth by the Ministry of Justice in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and in consultation with relevant agencies.

Article 14

The enforcement agency and location for the communication surveillance should be designated in accordance with the request from the petitioning agency. When a judge issues an interception warrant ex officio, the issuer shall designate such agency and location; likewise, when issuing a warrant pursuant to the provisions of Article 7.

 

Telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks and postal enterprises are obligated to assist in the implementation of communication surveillance. The items of assistance include providing communication surveillance related facilities for the use of the enforcement agency, and personnel assistance.

 

Expenses generated, while assisting in the implementation of communication surveillance as defined in the preceding Paragraph, may be reimbursed by the enforcement agency after the surveillance operation is completed. The expense items and fee standards shall be set forth and announced by the competent authority of the target enterprise in consultation with the relevant agencies.

 

The communication systems of telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks should be equipped with the functions required to provide surveillance assistance. While the telecommunications enterprises are obligated to assist in the setup for the established organization, and to maintain the communication surveillance system, its obligations are limited to having reasonable technology and economic development at the time of setup, and expectations should not exceed the possibilities.

 

Expenses generated by assisting in the setup of communication surveillance systems, as defined in the preceding Paragraph, shall be paid for by the established organization. The necessary expenses generated while assisting in maintaining the normal functions of the communication surveillance operation shall be enacted and promulgated by the competent authority of the target enterprise in consultation with relevant agencies.

Article 14-1

Telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks have the obligation to keep and assist in obtaining communication user information and communication records.

Telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks have the obligation to keep and assist in obtaining network traffic records as designated by the established organization of communications supervision..

 

Telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks may request the enforcement agency to pay the necessary expenses incurred by assisting in obtaining information or records referred to in the preceding two paragraphs.

 

Telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks are designated by the established organization of communications supervision. Their communication or network systems should have the function of keeping and obtaining network traffic records, and the performance of the public telecommunications network shall be limited to the extent that the performance of the public telecommunications network can be provided.

 

Necessary expenses incurred by telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks, as designated by the established organization of communications supervision, for setting up a system for keeping network traffic records and maintaining the normal operation of keeping and obtaining network traffic records shall be determined by the construction agency shall bear the burden.

 

The established organization of communications supervision shall bear the necessary expenses incurred by setting up a system for keeping network traffic records and maintaining the normal operation of keeping and obtaining network traffic records shall be determined by the established organization of communications supervision.

 

The regulations on the method of setting up the network traffic recording system, the method of storage, the retention period, the operating procedures for inquiry, the items to be obtained, the supervision, the amount of fees, and other related matters shall be set forth by the Ministry of Justice in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior in consultation with the National Communications Commission and the relevant authorities.

Article 15

The enforcement agency of communication surveillance cases as described in Article 5, Article 6, and Article 7, Paragraph 2 should, when the communication surveillance is over, state the name, permanent address or contact address of the person under surveillance, the Subparagraph under Article 11, Paragraph 1 that is applicable to the surveillance case and reference number of the authority issuing the interception warrant, the actual period of surveillance, whether communications information corresponding to the purpose of the surveillance has been obtained and the remedy procedure in the report to the prosecutor, or the authority overseeing national intelligence, whom in turn should report to the court, so that the person under surveillance may be notified. The report should also include the reasons if such a notification is deemed to be interfering with the purpose of the surveillance, or if the person should not be notified.

 

If the report under the preceding Paragraph is not filed with the prosecutor and the authority overseeing national intelligence one month after the completion of the communications surveillance, the court shall notify the person under surveillance within 14 days, unless such notification is not possible.

 

Upon receiving the report as described in the first Paragraph, the court should notify the person who was under surveillance, with the exception that if there is a concrete reason showing that such a notification is deemed to be interfering with the purpose of the surveillance, or if the person should not be notified.

 

When the reasons for not notifying cease to exist, the enforcement agency should submit a report to the prosecutor, or the authority overseeing national intelligence, so that the court may supplement the notification. If the reason has not ceased to exist, the status of said case shall be continuously reported to the court every three months after submission of the report under the preceding Paragraph. If the report is not filed in time, the court shall notify the person under surveillance within 14 days.

 

Contents of the report submitted by the enforcement agency shall be verified by the court and forwarded to the judicial associate officer for use in notifying the communications service user who was under surveillance, except if such a notification is not possible.

 

The telecommunications service users under surveillance referred to in the preceding Paragraph include individual, institutions (agencies) or organizations.

 

The preceding paragraphs 1 to 6 shall also apply mutatis mutandis to the situation of obtaining other people's network traffic in accordance with the provisions of this Act. However, the implementation of Paragraph 4 of Article 11-1 to obtain network traffic records shall be notified by the enforcement agency.

Article 19

Persons who conduct communication surveillance that violates the provisions of this Act or other laws, or leak, provide, or use the information obtained from such communication surveillance are liable for damages.

 

Victims who suffered a non-pecuniary damage may claim a commensurate amount of compensation; those who suffered damages to their reputation may also request appropriate punishment for the restoration of their reputation.

 

The right to claim as described in the preceding Paragraph shall not be transferred or inherited. However, this restriction does not apply to those claims where the compensation amount has been committed to in a contract or where the claims are in an ongoing trial.

 

The preceding paragraphs 1 to 3 shall also apply in cases of obtaining other people's communication user information and network traffic records in violation of the provisions of this Act or other laws.

Article 29

If any one of the following conditions is met when conducting surveillance on other people's communications, it is not punishable:

1. It is conducted pursuant to the law.

2. Employees of telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks and postal enterprises conducted the surveillance based on the objective of providing public telecommunications, public telecommunications networks or postal services in accordance with the relevant laws.

3. The person conducting the surveillance is one of the parties in communication, or has obtained consent from one of the parties in communication, and the conduct is not for illegal purpose.

Article 31

The telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks and postal enterprises that are obligated to assist in enforcing communication surveillance and have violated the provisions of Article 14, Paragraph 2 shall be subject to a fine of more than five hundred thousand and less than 5 million New Taiwan dollars by the competent authority of the relevant industry. Those who, upon receiving the notification for compliance, continue to violate the law shall be fined continuously on a case-by-case basis.

 

Telecommunications enterprises that have the obligation to keep and assist in obtaining communication user information, communication records or network traffic records, and those who set up public telecommunications networks, who violate the provisions of Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 2 of Article 14-1, shall also be subject to the same.

 

Those who are dissatisfied with the administrative sanctions imposed by the competent authorities of telecommunications enterprises and those who set up public telecommunications networks in accordance with this Act shall directly apply administrative litigation procedures.