Documentary and field research on the Latin American data protection authorities: the social and institutional concept of privacy and personal data

• Grant number: 18/23010-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2020 - December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law
• Convênio/Acordo: MCTI/MC
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Kehrig Veronese Aguiar
• Grantee: Alexandre Kehrig Veronese Aguiar
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito. Universidade de Brasília (UNB)
• Associated researchers: Alessandra Aparecida Souza da Silveira ; Márcio Nunes Iorio Aranha Oliveira ; Rebecca Forattini Altino Machado Lemos Igreja ; Thiago Guimarães Moraes
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/05346-9 - Training in documentary and field research on the Latin American data protection authorities, BP.TT; 20/03472-4 - Training in documentary and field research on the Latin American Data Protection Authorities, BP.TT

Abstract

Many Latin American countries have statutory law to regulate the data protection and organize their agencies. This project intent to gather documentary and first-hand information in order to understand how those agencies really enforce the data protection laws in our neighbor countries. The research is timely because of the recent signature into law of the Brazilian General Data Protection Act (Federal Statute # 2018/13,709). The Act determines the creation of a Brazilian Data Protection Agency. The research will assess information to understand the regulatory models in practice over the region. The project will use three research methods. The first will be a documentary research to build a history of the approval of the national statutes and agencies. The second will be a comparative legal research of the national laws. The third will comprise seven field trips to acknowledge the national agencies, and managers, in order to evaluate their institutional capacities and practices. A preliminary assessment indicates that seven of the twenty major Latin American countries have Data Protection Authorities. The team will make field trips to Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Panama, and Peru. All of them have national statutes and authorities with ongoing activities. There are two theoretical questions. The first inquires the potential institutional differences between the Latin American countries when they organize their national systems of data protection. In addition, there is a doubt about the influence of the European model among Latin America. It derives from the Directive 95/46/EC, recently exchanged by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679). The second theoretical question is about the cultural differences among the Latin American countries and how can this influence the national systems of data protection. (AU)