Would the General Data Protection Act be elitist, able to benefit only those who have money and higher education? This question has not yet been asked in Brazil, but it has recently been answered in France, a country that is a pioneer in data protection.
In a study published by the innovation laboratory of the French data protection authority (the CNIL), the finding is that the set of rights we call “data protection” is exercised by a privileged segment of the population. The study took into account claimants for these rights and conducted in-depth interviews with CNIL users.
Data is uncomfortable. Users of data protection are essentially men (62%), belonging to professional elites, with a university degree, with an overrepresentation of holders of a master’s degree (small segment of the population). Most of them aged between 30 and 49 years. In addition, there is an overrepresentation of people who live in the country’s capital, to the detriment of other regions and cities in the interior.
Based on data from another national survey, the study states that 68% of the French population knows the data protection authority (the CNIL). However, among the population without higher education, this number drops to 47%. Among the population that belongs to the professional elite, the number jumps to 93%.
The French authority was founded in 1978. Even so, after 44 years, it is still unknown to significant parts of the country’s population. The Brazilian data protection authority — the ANPD — was created in 2018. The French example shows that the ANPD has a long way to go, both to be known and to prevent distortions like these from becoming the rule in Brazil as well.
Concern about data protection grows according to socioeconomic positioning. Another data shows that only 20% of people without higher education say they care about data protection. Among the elite, 47% say they have taken some measure to protect data in the last six months before the survey.
Another issue is that the exercise of the right to data protection has taken place especially in relation to individual interests. Typical cases include people wanting to delete information that threatens their reputation. A common case is men between the ages of 25 and 45, graduates, seeking to suppress discrediting information from databases.
Within this already quite restricted universe, there are also the so-called “repeat players”. People who discover that they can take personal advantage of these rights start using the protection system over and over again. Of those interviewed by the CNIL, 27% were “repeat players”.
The French study generates at least two reflections. The first, of caution. In Brazil, the Data Protection Law is recent and has even been used to suppress access to data of public interest. Caution is needed so that further distortions, such as those identified in France, do not take root among us. The second is the importance of legal sociology studies such as this one. It is essential to understand how rights are applied in practice and who actually benefits from them.
READER
It’s over Working for the General Data Protection Law to be passed
Already Work so that the National Data Authority is known to the entire population
It’s coming Work so that the General Data Protection Law does not become elitist
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