Provisional Measure 954 published yesterday (20/04) in the Brazilian Official Gazette, provides for mandatory sharing of customer data by fixed and mobile telephone carriers with the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE.
Data of registered customers – whether individuals or companies, including names, telephone numbers, and addresses of clients – should be made available to the IBGE for the sole purpose of conducting surveys and home interviews during the emergency public health situation, due to the coronavirus (COVID- 19), meanwhile being forbidden to sell or make this information available to third parties. The Provisional Measure also establishes that the database should be eliminated as soon as the emergency, which arose from covid-19 is overcome.
However, there is a clear movement against the Provisional Measure given that Direct Unconstitutionality Actions (ADIs) nos. 6387, 6388, 6390, and 6389 were all proposed on the same day before the Supreme Federal Court by the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), the Party of Socialism and Liberty (Psol), and the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), respectively. They all require preliminary assessment of the lawsuits.
In summary, the lawsuits claim that the Provisional Measure lacks reasonableness and proportionality, in addition to violating constitutional provisions that ensure the fundamental right to human dignity; the inviolability of intimacy, private life, honor and people’s image; data confidentiality; and informational self-determination.
The Provisional Measure should be analyzed by the National Congress in the next 60 days. The ADIs, in turn, must be assessed by the reporting minister to be defined and subsequently ruled by the plenary of the Court.
