Data from Below #3
Highlights from Brazil and the Global South.
Dear reader,
Welcome to the 3rd edition of Data from Below, Data Privacy Brasil’s official international newsletter.
Highlights:
Advocacy | Approval of Bill 2628/2022 (“Digital Child and Adolescent Statute”)
Event | LGPD and Geopolitics: The Role of Data Protection
Advocacy | Contribution to Ministry of Management and Innovation public policy on data governance
Data Privacy Brasil and Public Citizen submit public comments to USTR’s investigation
This week, Public Citizen and Data Privacy Brasil jointly submitted public comments in response to the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) request for comments on its Section 301 investigation of Acts, Policies and Practices of Brazil related to Digital Trade and Electronic Payments Services; Preferential Tariffs; Anti-Corruption Enforcement; Intellectual Property Protection; Ethanol Market Access’ and Illegal Deforestation.
Key points raised in the comment include:
The absence of any legal basis for adopting trade sanctions against Brazil by the current U.S. administration and the (mis)use of Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act;
Brazil’s digital laws, regulations and policies are not unjustified, unfair, unreasonable, or arbitrary, and they do not discriminate against U.S companies. They are justified efforts by a sovereign nation to address the societal impacts of certain digital technologies, including online misinformation and privacy abuse. A number of similar policies have been adopted by U.S. states and proposed by Congress.
Brazil’s intellectual property laws, specifically those pertaining to pharmaceuticals, provide adequate and effective protection under international obligations and should be respected in line with U.S. commitments to respect trading partners' rights to adopt measures that further the public interest and protect public health.
Based on the arguments presented, the institutions demanded the USTR to close its current investigation into Brazil’s supposed illegal and unfair trade practices in the context of digital trade and digital payment services and intellectual property protection, without returning any findings suggesting a breach of S 301, Trade Act, by Brazil.
Checkout the full text on this link. The joint contribution got mentions on Politico’s Morning Trade newsletter and Inside US Trade website.
Institutional Updates
Data Privacy Brasil celebrates the approval of Bill 2628/2022 (“Digital Child and Adolescent Statute”) in the House of Representatives, highlighting its contribution to drafting the text in the Senate and its democratic dialogue with the House. The organization took part in a public hearing and joined a civil society movement led by Instituto Alana, which was key to securing political support for the proposal. The Digital Statute sets out rules to protect children and adolescents online, banning the economic exploitation of data, commercial profiling, and the monetization of content harmful to their rights. The expectation is that the bill will move swiftly through the Senate and be signed into law by the President.
On the occasion of the Brazilian Data Protection Law (LGPD)’s 7th anniversary, we invited former Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes and international relations specialist Lauro Accioly to discuss the geopolitics of Brazil’s data protection ecosystem, and it’s broader impact on the country’s regulatory maturity and the Global South’s demands in digital governance. We also revisited Brazil’s track record in data protection, cross-border data flows, and its participation in global governance mechanisms alongside Latin American and European countries. Use the automatic subtitle translation to check it out!
After advocacy efforts by Data Privacy Brasil in partnership with Idec, CEDIS, and InternetLab, the Ministry of Management and Innovation revised a public policy on data governance. In April, the federal government issued a decree mandating the sharing of data from public agencies and concessionaires with the Ministry. Our analysis identified data protection concerns in the text, which we formally communicated to the Ministry, raising objections and recommending both substantive amendments to the decree and the opening of a public consultation. Following this intervention, the Ministry issued a revised decree incorporating adjustments to the original text and launched a public consultation. Data Privacy Brasil participated in the consultation process, and three out of five recommendations were adopted. We celebrate the sucess of this advocacy intervention and to contribute to the improvement of a public policy.
*Disclaimer: This newsletter was produced with the support of ChatGPT for translation and text review.