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

[John Curran]

Here's an interesting and slightly different perspective on the Brazilian Internet matter - 

   <http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/20/brazil-internet-dilmarousseffnsa.html>

FYI,
/John


On Sep 18, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Diego Rafael Canabarro <diegocanabarro at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 — 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)
> --
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
> 
> For all other list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/
> 
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130920/2559c036/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t