Direito à Privacidade e Novas Tecnologias: Breves Considerações Acerca da Proteção de Dados Pessoais no Brasil e na Europa

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the evolution of the concept of privacy, its transformation into the right to informational self-determination and its normative impacts. The advent of communication and information technologies has transformed contemporary society in many ways. One of them is the possibility of accessing, storing and systematizing data about each individual. This accumulation of information about someone means power, political and economic, due to the possibility of influencing behaviors. Thus, the privacy that initially meant the right to be let alone became the right to maintain control over one’s own data, especially over sensitive data. Since the 1970s, with the primacy of Germany, several countries have begun to regulate this important aspect of contemporary societies. The European Union has recently replaced the 1995 Directive with a new and more comprehensive Regulation, which entered into force in May 2018. This Regulation, because of the careful preparation it has undergone, has the potential to influence the standards of non-EU countries, as is the case in Brazil, where currently the Congress debates important legislative systematization of the sector. This article will address this evolution of the idea of privacy, the concern with data control, making a brief analysis of the European Regulation and legislative proposals in Brazil. It is concluded that all efforts – legislative and hermeneutical – should be undertaken to ensure greater protection of informational self-determination, as this means, in the virtual world in which we live part of our lives, greater protection of the human person.