Systematic Government access to private-sector data in Brazil

This paper describes the ways in which the Brazilian Government may have access to personal data in the possession of private sector organizations with a specific focus on identifying the possibility of systematic access. There is no broad data protection legislation in Brazil, but specific statutes regulate governmental access for issues such as telecommunications, wiretapping, financial data, money laundering, and national intelligence. There have been many conflicting decisions in the Judiciary about governmental access to personal data, particularly registration data. In order to address this issue, a statute from 2012 expanded the investigative powers of the Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, granting them access to registration data regardless of a court order. A detailed evaluation of several statutes and current practices of the industry revealed the existence of at least two cases of systematic access: one involving telecommunication regulatory access, and another derived from agreements between law enforcement authorities and private companies. Two recent legislative proposals-an Internet regulatory framework called 'Marco Civil da Internet' and a draft bill on data protection-aim to provide further clarity on many unresolved issues and enhance privacy protections.