Senate approves PEC for inclusion of data protection as a fundamental right

July 09, 2019

Cybersecurity & Data Privacy

The Proposal for Constitutional Amendment (PEC), aiming to include the protection of personal data among the constitutional fundamental rights and guarantees was approved in 2 rounds by the Senate on July 2, 2019.

Article 5, XII, of the Brazilian Federal Constitution was amended, establishing that "it is ensured, by law, the right of personal data protection, including in digital media". Currently, the Brazilian Federal Constitution already guarantees the secrecy of correspondence and telegraphic communications, data and telephone communications.

In addition, PEC also includes a new section in Article 22, determining that the jurisdiction to legislate on the protection and processing of personal data will belong exclusively to the Union.

Even with an existing ordinary law concerning specifically data protection (the General Data Protection Law), Senator Eduardo Gomes, author of the PEC, understands that data protection needs a constitutional provision "convinced that Brazil needs more than an ordinary law on the subject, despite the legal relevance of the LGPD, we propose this amendment to the Federal Constitution."
 
The PEC is now being submitted to the analysis and approval by the House of Representatives.

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