Year after year, there is an increase in the deployment of online surveillance technologies and massive collection of personal data by different public security institutions in Brazil. This is followed by the proliferation of non-standardized public contracts in each state — sometimes even within each state.

The public authorities also maintain a low level of transparency about the use, contracting and procurement of these tools. There is a lack of information about what data on Brazilian citizens is being collected, processed and used to enable these technologies to work.

The scenario is made even more worrying by the weakness of the regulatory framework for the privacy and personal data protection in the field of public security. The processing of data collected for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting crimes must be regulated by a specific legislation, in accordance with Article 4, III of the Brazilian Data Protection Law (LGPD). However, this legislation has not yet been approved in the country. Even so, the LGPD principles and dispositions must be applied until this specific text is approved.

Transparência Brasil’s Surveillance and Technology project seeks to understand:

• How has the government contracted online surveillance technology and technology aimed at  massive collection of personal data for public security today, in the absence of specific data protection regulations for its activities?
• Are there adequate and effectively functioning data protection mechanisms for the information that is already being collected, stored and used for these purposes?

The study analyzed five states that use technology intensively in public security: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul.

As a result of the study, TB presented recommendations to public bodies for improvements in transparency and the protection of personal data in the use of online and telematic monitoring technologies. The second objective of this initiative is to qualify discussions on the drafting of a Data Protection Law in the context of public security and criminal prosecution, as determined by §1 of art. 4 of the LGPD.