The Law and Innovation Research Group (GEPI) of FGV’s Sao Paulo Law School (Direito SP) brought together market experts and scholars to discuss the drafting of a bill to protect personal data, in Sao Paulo. The event featured the research ‘A new world of data,’ a one-year study examining the technological initiatives of companies in the agricultural and healthcare industries, as well as the public sector, projects involving smart cities, such as free Wi-Fi hot spots in Sao Paulo, Campinas, and Porto Alegre, and the Electronic Parking Meters in Sao Paulo.

Based on these cases, GEPI researchers began to analyze the level of knowledge of interviewees in each respective sector, regarding the processing of personal data collected by applications and technologies. According to GEPI Coordinator Alexandre Pacheco, “although each sector has its own specific characteristics, the common feature that caught our attention was the vulnerability and lack of knowledge of players regarding the importance of more comprehensive laws to protect personal data.”

Pacheco said that there are several national and international studies addressing this topic from an academic standpoint, but highlighted the lack of an analysis with practical references, partly supplied the study ‘A new world of data.’ 

“The study gives us essential indicators to spark public debate on how personal data is handled and protected, in addition to promoting better ways to handle such data from a perspective of entrepreneurship and new businesses,” he said.

Marcel Leonardi, Public Policy Director at Google, pointed out one of the obstacles faced by researchers, which is the private sector’s struggle to understand the importance of opening up this information in order to promote public debate. 

“Many of these players have a tendency to initially deny the existence of a problem and later share their fears that passing a new law could hinder the development of new businesses,” said Leonardi. “The merit of this research is to demystify this belief and shed light onto the relevance of discussing a bill that would actually help promote entrepreneurship.”

Caio Mario da Silva Pereira Neto, lawyer and professor at Direito SP, emphasized the incredible synergy between the surveyed sectors and the challenges of regulating the Internet of Things (IoT) in Brazil, raising questions on how a personal data protection law could interact with the regulation of data automatically collected by machines and devices programmed for this function.

There are currently three initiatives underway in Congress: Bills 406012, 330/13, and 5276/16, the latter originated from the Ministry of Justice project titled ‘Thinking About Law’, submitted to public consultation on two occasions between 2010 and 2011.

Go to the website to read the full study.