The Global Digital Rights Conference (RightsCon) was launched in Taipei on February 24. Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission and the Philippine Human Rights Commission co-hosted the “2025 International Digital Rights Workshop” as a RightsCon satellite event, inviting Lyle Lai, an overseas researcher from the Center for Technology, Democracy, and Society (DSET), to participate in discussions focusing on emerging human rights challenges brought by digital development and artificial intelligence (AI). The event attracted key human rights organizations and technology experts from around the world to explore future developments and regulatory strategies for digital rights.
Strengthening Personal Data Protection, Preventing Privacy Risks in the AI Era
DSET overseas researcher Lyle Lai was invited to participate in this forum to discuss the impact of AI’s rise on human rights protection with international experts. His presentation focused on AI and privacy protection; privacy challenges caused by web scraping and AI inference, and gaps in Taiwan’s personal data protection framework in addressing these issues. He emphasized that the government should consider legal amendments to ensure that AI technology development complies with human rights and privacy protection standards.
Lai believes that the rise of AI has exacerbated privacy risks in data “collection” and “processing.” Regarding data collection, he specifically warned that web scraping violates multiple privacy principles and threatens people’s privacy interest in maintaining personal image “vagueness” free from surveillance. He emphasized that Taiwan should not exclude publicly available personal data from the scope of personal data protection, but should amend laws to establish procedural and substantive protections, and clarify the “public interest” purposes of relevant data collection to maintain individual privacy and autonomy in the AI era.
Regarding data processing, Lai pointed out that AI can be used to analyze personal images and potentially infer “sensitive” personal information, such as health conditions and sexual orientation, from “non-sensitive” personal data, while people often cannot anticipate or prevent such exposure risks. Therefore, the current personal data protection paradigm centered on “personal consent” is being challenged. He suggested strengthening institutional and structural protection of personal data beyond the personal consent model, and enhancing relevant regulations and restrictions according to the risks and harms of AI data use.
Global Dialogue on AI Regulation and Digital Rights
This workshop was moderated by Yixiu Hou, Secretary-General of Taiwan AI Academy, and featured experts from technology and human rights fields, including Commissioner Beda Angeles Epres and Commissioner Faydah Maniri Dumarpa from the Philippine Human Rights Commission, Commissioner Wen-cheng Lin from Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission, former Google Taiwan Managing Director Lee-feng Chien, and Mette Thygesen, Director of International Department at the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Discussions covered how the rise of AI technology impacts human rights protection, the roles of governments and businesses in digital governance, and how to balance AI innovation with human rights protection.
The workshop not only brought together international human rights organizations but also attracted many Taiwanese civil society groups and representatives from foreign institutions in Taiwan, including the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Amnesty International Taiwan, the Open Culture Foundation, as well as the German Institute Taipei, the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, and the Trade Office of Swiss Industries, to jointly explore how to develop concrete regulatory frameworks to address AI and digital rights challenges.
DSET will continue to focus on AI and information security issues and work with international partners to ensure that AI technology development complies with human rights and democratic values.