Cybercrime
is gaining popularity across borders as it has become more sophisticated,
border-less nature and with tremendous destructive power. Cybercrime Law is
among those key elements to fight cybercrimes in any Country, Yet the law
itself is not enough. It must be accompanied by effective cybersecurity awareness
programs, Capacity building (Enhancing knowledge to those dealing with
cybercrimes) and collaborations (Internally and externally – Across borders).
Brazil
like many other countries become among those with cybercrimes law in place. As
of many countries, Pressure to amend its cyberlaw rise for the past few months.
After much pressure from Internet rights
advocates, proponents of new cybercrime legislation in Brazil removed some of
the most controversial elements of the bill on April 11. Critics of the draft
amendments also managed to secure a postponing of the preliminary vote to the
end of the month.
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NEWS UPDATES:
Online messaging service, WhatsApp is now fully encrypted on all platforms. The
end-to-end encryption means that WhatsApp cannot access the contents of
communications, and would therefore be unable to comply with court orders
demanding access to that information.
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The
amendments form an integral part of a report from the parliamentary Inquiry
Commission on Cybercrimes (CPI dos Crimes Cibernéticos), released on March 31,
that would modify key aspects of Marco Civil, Brazil's globally celebrated
‘bill of rights’ for the Internet.
The
Commission was established in August last year with the objective of proposing
legislation to better tackle online crimes.
Following
criticism, federal deputy Espiridiao Amin, who is the rapporteur of the
commission, released on April 11 a new version of the report, with slight
changes to the most controversial elements of the legislation.
The new text of Marco
Civil's article 21 read as follows:
“Internet providers will have to take the technical measures, within
the limits of their capabilities, to assure that the infringing content,
subject of a court order or notification referenced in this Section, remains
unavailable in case is has been copied, eliminating the need for a new court
order or notification to remove those [reproductions] of said content.”
In
its justification, the report states that the current stipulations in Marco
Civil make it difficult to remove criminal content when they are replicated —
Marco Civil expressly mentions the “undeniable location of the material” when
referring to the removal of a content. According to the report, the current
system is “unfair to the victim, who is obligated to request a new court order
against each occurrence of said content.”
Article
10 of the Marco Civil, which treats of the protection of user data, will gain
the following amendment:
“The police authority or the public prosecutor could request to the
Internet access provider or the Internet application provider, regardless of
judicial authorization, the IP address used for the generation of specific
content object of criminal investigation.”
The
rationale for the proposal, the report says, is that “It's important to
reinforce that what is being proposed is not to liberate access of police
forces to the data of any internet users…Internet users that haven't committed
any crime will have the guarantee of the preservation of its intimacy. But
those that make use of the internet to practice crimes will be identified
quickly.”
Finally,
the report also maintained that the judicial system could demand that ISPs
block entire Internet applications and websites. Language is vague on what
circumstances such blocking could be used — it merely says that applications
‘related’ to criminal conduct could be subjected to censorship.
It
also says that the practice is current in the European Union, United States and
Chile, which is contested by some Internet advocates. It is also unclear
whether such a disposition could trigger the blocking of applications that do
not provide an illegal service, but could be used for criminal practices — this
is what prompted the blockade of WhatsApp last year in Brazil.
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