[governance] Amid NSA Tensions, Brazil May Change Its Internet Laws

[Diego Rafael Canabarro]

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-330272/

Tensions are flaring between the U.S. and Brazil over spying, and now
Brazil is weighing controversial new Internet laws to keep the U.S.
government out of its data.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called off a planned state visit to
Washington on Tuesday<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323527004579081283724694994.html?mod=WSJWorld__LEFTTopStories>
—
the first for a Brazilian leader in nearly two decades — in response to
news reports that the National Security Agency had spied on her and
state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro.

In Brazil, politicians and techies are debating how to address allegations
of U.S. spying that have surfaced from documents leaked by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden. In addition to straining U.S.-Brazil
relations, the allegations have pushed politicians to vote on a landmark
law that would regulate the Internet for the first time.

While the NSA leaks have sparked protests from all over the world, the
reaction in Brazil has been especially strong. It has been fueled by a
steady stream of news reports on Brazil’s main news network, Globo TV. The
stories, which include allegations of spying on Rousseff and Petrobras,
have been supplied to the news agency by Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian
reporter who first exposed the Snowden documents and who lives in Rio de
Janeiro.

At the center of the data protection debate is a proposed amendment to a
bill that will soon be voted on in Brazil’s congress. The law would require
Internet companies like Google and Facebook to physically store data about
Brazilians in Brazil.

The bill in its original form, called Marco Civil, establishes guidelines
for Internet regulation, including protections for freedom of expression,
limits on data retention, and provisions protecting Internet companies from
the actions of their users, a number of which have been adopted in many
major Internet markets including the U.S. and throughout Europe.

The proposed amendment appears to be an effort to better secure local user
data. Having data stored locally would give the Brazilian government more
control over Internet data, and Brazilian courts would more easily be able
to issue orders for access to information about Brazilian users of services
from foreign companies.

Rousseff, who supports the proposed amendment, has declared Marco Civil –
first proposed on 2011 – to be an emergency measure that must be voted on
within 45 days.

Some experts say the proposed amendment is problematic, and would create
numerous complications for Internet service providers. Much Internet data
is, by nature, stored globally, and enables the exchange of information and
use of Internet products across borders because it is not geographically
restricted.

“It basically ignores the entire Internet, because this data has to
circulate, it’s going to be sent to Miami, to Europe. It’s not going to be
sitting idle in the servers–that’s [the point] they ignored,” said Ronaldo
Lemos, director of a Rio de Janeiro think tank called the Institute for
Technology & Society and an advisor to Brazil’s Congress on Media and Free
Speech issues. Lemos helped draft the bill in its original form.

The law could, for example, limit the ability of smaller companies abroad
to legally provide their services to Brazilian users without investing in
local data centers.

A Google spokeswoman said that while the company supported the original
bill, “the proposed amendment to Marco Civil requiring Internet companies
to store Brazilian user data in Brazil risks denying Brazilian users access
to great services that are provided by U.S. and other international
companies.”

At the same time, it is also unclear how the proposed amendment could be
enforced. Would the regulation apply to Internet users located in Brazil —
or Brazilian Internet users everywhere?

Storing data in Brazil could also raise privacy problems, because the
country lacks a law that addresses specific data protection
issues. Brazil’s constitution broadly calls for the protection of privacy.

Marco Civil would establish some privacy protections. For example, it
proposes that Internet service providers should retain usage logs no longer
than one year. Currently, there is no maximum time limit for data retention
in Brazil.

Privacy advocates say they hope many of issues, including storing medical
records, could be addressed in a separate bill. That privacy bill is still
being drafted.

-- 
Diego R. Canabarro
http://lattes.cnpq.br/4980585945314597

--
diego.canabarro [at] ufrgs.br
diego [at] pubpol.umass.edu
MSN: diegocanabarro [at] gmail.com
Skype: diegocanabarro
Cell # +55-51-9244-3425 (Brasil) / +1-413-362-0133 (USA)
--
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