Data protection and privacy as a fundamental right: a comparative study of Brazil and India

Abstract

This paper aimed to analyze how Brazil and India faced the challenge of a large amount of personal information being exchanged, stored, and analyzed. The relevance lies in the fact that data protection and privacy were concepts discussed almost everywhere in the world since the era of Big Data highlighted the challenge of protecting these fundamental rights. Therefore, the research problem was to analyze to what extent these countries effectively faced the challenge presented. The methodology used was exploratory and hypothetical-deductive. As a result, it was identified that the rights to privacy and personal data were not absolute and had to be balanced with other social interests, such as public security, law enforcement, and freedom of expression. It was concluded that inspired by international standards on the subject, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, both countries had legislative protection over these rights and a framework to address them. The legislation provided fundamental principles, but only time will show their effectiveness.