- published: 15 Jul 2013
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Reports alleging the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been partnering with companies to spy on Brazilians has heated up debate over a draft bill stuck in Congress since 2011 that might have helped prevent the alleged online snooping. In London's Guardian and Brazilian newspaper O Globo, American journalist Glenn Greenwald recently disclosed the NSA has built a global espionage system in partnership with private companies, with Brazil being its main target in Latin America. The reports were based documents provided by former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "The NSA has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication network and indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored the email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians," Greenwald wrote. The reports cite the NSA's "FAIRVIEW" programme, which partners with an unidentified US telecom company, which in turn works with local telcoms in foreign countries. Through such business relations, the US telecom gains access to the communications of locals around the world, and then passes those onto the NSA. "That the US government - in complete secrecy - is constructing a ubiquitous spying apparatus aimed not only at its own citizens, but all of the world's citizens, has profound consequences," said Greenwald. "It erodes, if not eliminates, the ability to use the internet with any remnant of privacy or personal security." Brazil's leaders were not impressed after the stories broke. Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota expressed "deep concern" and vowed to bring up the allegations with the United States and United Nations. "The Brazilian government is gravely concerned by the news that electronic and telephone communications of Brazilian citizens are the objective of espionage efforts by US intelligence agencies," a foreign ministry statement said. Problem solved? The Brazilian Internet Bill of Civil Rights (Marco Civil da Internet in Portuguese) was drafted with the intent to establish principles, guarantees, rights and duties for internet use in Brazil, determining guidelines on municipal, state and federal levels. Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo has said the bill may have prevented organisations such as the NSA from accessing the data of internet users in Brazil, and it should now be signed into law by Congress. Some critics have argued, however, the bill would be overly restrictive to police in criminal investigations. Others have said it would be ineffective in protecting the personal data of internet users. The Internet Bill of Civil Rights was introduced to the Chamber of Deputies in 2011, after months of open online discussion of its articles, having received thousands of contributions from different sectors. Henrique Eduardo Alves, the Chamber of Deputies president, has announced the bill could be voted on this week. Joana Varon, a researcher at the Centre for Technology and Society of Getúlio Vargas Foundation, said Brazil currently has a legal framework gap concerning online data protection. "Internet providers are partially free to decide which data they are willing to store, how they treat such data, and with whom they might share it," Varon said. "General guidelines are mentioned in their terms of services, but some important details are not. This situation creates uncertainty for users and potential violation of their rights." The draft bill before Congress would address such gaps, according to Varon. Internet service providers must store connection logs - including the connection duration and IP addresses - for one year if it becomes law. At the same time, providers are forbidden from storing emails, video, or voice communications, and the protection of people's private lives must be ensured, according to the bill. Matter of concern Diego Canabarro, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Digital Government of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, expressed concern that telecom companies may not abide by the bill's privacy protections. "Some of these companies provide the most used online services in the world, and under the argument of national security, the US may request access to different sorts of information," he said. Other critics said the law could also hamper law enforcement activities attempting to fight online crime. "If one kind of company may store data and the other may not, we have a market reserve," said congressman and businessman Ricardo Izar. "If telecoms could also store applications logs, it would make it easier for the police to track them down on the web during investigations."
![Brazil\'s telecommunications agency opens probe as Brazil investigates allegations U.S. spy agencies monitored electronic communications of Brazilian companies and citizens, communications minister says.
Full Story:
Brazilian Minister of Communications Paulo Bernardo on Monday (July 8) said the government was investigating allegations that United States spy agencies had been monitoring electronic communications of Brazilians for at least a decade.
Brazil\'s telecommunications agency also said on Monday it would investigate whether local operators had violated customer privacy rules.
[Paulo Bernardo, Brazilian Minister of Communications]:
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