Brazilian government to create single citizen database
The Brazilian government will create a single citizen database that will contain a wide range of personal information about the country's population of over 200 million people, to be fully shared across departments.
According to the decree signed by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, the objectives of the database include the improvement in public policy, as well as simplifying data sharing between government departments.
The information "will be shared as widely as possible," according to the decree, taking into account any legal restrictions, requirements around information and communications security, as well as Brazil's General Data Protection Act, which will be enforced in August 2020.
The database will be operated by different public sector agencies, which may offer and receive access to data. Data sharing will be categorized into three levels: broad, for public data that is not subject to any access restrictions; restricted, for data protected by confidentiality, though access will be granted to all government bodies for the purpose of execution of public policies; specific, applicable to confidential data, with access granted to certain agencies for legal purposes.
Initially, data to be added to the database will include details such as name, date of birth, address, parent names, ID, social security and voting card numbers, as well as employment information and details of any companies associated with individuals.
A second stage of the database includes biometric data which includes fingerprints, which are already collected as part of ID documents of mandatory use, as well as iris, facial format, voice and even gait.
The implementation of the database is being led by the Secretariat for Digital Government, which operates under the Ministry of Economy.
A Central Committee for Data Governance has also been created as part of the same decree. The group will be composed of seven members, including representatives from the Ministry of Economy, the country's social security institute and a secretariat focused on transparency and corruption prevention.
The representatives for the committee will be appointed within the next couple of weeks and the group is expected to hold its first meeting within the next 30 days.
However, the board for the National Authority for Data Protection, which is the overarching body that is supposed to oversee all data matters in Brazil, is yet to be announced.