Four Rings Youth | Buying sleeping pills and receiving a driver’s license cancellation text message, personal privacy needs to be locked down

Text | Half-Sugar Cola

Recently, a netizen in Xiamen, after purchasing sleeping pills online, suddenly received a text message from the traffic police, reminding them that their driver’s license might be revoked, which sparked public concern.

The text message received by the netizen showed that the traffic police in Huli District, Xiamen, screened drivers who purchased specific medications (such as the sleeping pill zopiclone, quick-acting heart-saving pills, etc.) through big data comparison of medical insurance and medication purchase records, and sent out text message warnings. The text message stated that the driver “may have a disease that hinders safe driving” (such as heart disease, epilepsy, mental illness), and required them to go through relevant confirmation procedures within 30 days, otherwise their driver’s license would be declared invalid.

On March 30, staff from the traffic police department of Huli District, Xiamen City, stated that they did send such text messages, and many people had inquired about it. The text message is just a reminder. After receiving the information, drivers are advised to go to the local traffic police department for further verification, and may need to sign a commitment letter or obtain a hospital certificate.

Although the driver’s license is not immediately revoked, this text message still caused public concern about the infringement of personal privacy.

In the eyes of the public, medical records and medication purchase records belong to highly sensitive personal medical privacy, which cannot be arbitrarily accessed even by public authorities unless there is sufficient necessity, such as when an individual is engaging in acts that endanger public safety. Receiving such a text message immediately after buying medicine, even with good intentions, can easily give people a sense of being monitored. This also makes people ask: Since medication purchase records can be checked to revoke driver’s licenses, can other sensitive data also be used for other purposes?

The traffic management department has a legal basis for managing people with diseases that hinder safe driving. Article 79 of the “Regulations on the Application and Use of Motor Vehicle Driver’s Licenses” lists 11 situations in which a driver’s license should be revoked, including: those with organic heart disease, epilepsy, Meniere’s disease, vertigo, and other diseases that hinder safe driving; those who have been taking addictive psychotropic drugs for a long time and have not yet quit.

But the problem is that a netizen buying sleeping pills does not equal “physical conditions not suitable for driving”, nor does it equal “long-term use of addictive psychotropic drugs”. More than one netizen mentioned that they or their relatives had received similar text messages because they helped their elderly family members buy sleeping pills.

Therefore, triggering a warning based solely on a person’s purchase of sleeping pills and other related drugs has obvious logical loopholes.

Furthermore, there are many types of sleeping pills, some are for temporary adjustment, and some are strictly controlled second-class psychotropic drugs, the latter of which, if frequently used, may clearly affect driving ability. If big data equates buying sleeping pills directly with not having driving qualifications and requires the person to explain, this oversimplified algorithmic logic not only wastes public resources but also causes inconvenience to individuals, violating the principle of accuracy in administrative law enforcement.

In the final analysis, maintaining public safety should not come at the cost of sacrificing personal privacy, otherwise it will infringe on individual rights, create a bad impression on society, and also affect the legitimacy of law enforcement.

Now, some places are deeply integrating medical examination data and driver’s license management data, and achieving intelligent management through real-time sharing and interaction of data between various departments. This is indeed beneficial, for example, after the data is connected, drivers do not need to go to the hospital for a physical examination specifically for license renewal; instead, they can add driver’s license review items to the routine physical examination, and if no relevant problems are found, they can directly renew their license, saving a lot of trouble.

This type of operation is praised, not only because it is convenient for people, but also because, from the disclosed information, the data sharing mainly focuses on “diseases that hinder safe driving”, which are explicitly stipulated by law, and theoretically, there is no need to worry about being mistakenly harmed. But if medical examination data is used to serve other purposes, or if the scope of data collection is further expanded, then people will inevitably worry that their “flaws” will become a shackle on their rights.

Big data governance is an unstoppable trend, and even if it is convenient for the people, the principle of minimal necessity must be adhered to. Where is the boundary of cross-departmental data sharing, and how to prevent the leakage and abuse of personal privacy from a systemic perspective, these questions need a clear answer.

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