14 DAY TRIAL // Now that it was revealed the NSA had been focusing its surveillance efforts in South America on Brazil, the country’s politicians have been debating over a draft bill that’s been stuck in Congress since 2011.
The bill, if made official, could help prevent the online snooping, Aljazeera reports.
Last week, Glenn Greenwald broke this particular chapter of the NSA surveillance scandal over the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, disclosing that the United States intelligence agency had a system that involved partnership with private companies.
The country’s officials were quick to react and the government’s concern was immediately expressed.
The Brazilian Internet Bill of Civil Rights was drafted to establish principles, guarantees, rights and duties for Internet use in the country. However, months of open discussions led to nowhere and the bill was not passed into law.
The matter of concern, however, is that the politicians need to choose between the complete privacy of local Internet users and the financial gains of the companies that provide services in the country.
According to the bill in its current form, Internet service providers must store connection logs (connection duration and IP addresses) for one year, but they are forbidden from storing emails, video or voice communications.
“I can choose not to use Google or Facebook, for example, but I need Internet connection in any case. If connection providers could also store the services I use, they would be able to track anything down. An applications company cannot access connection logs, but a connection company is able to know the applications I use. The bill is important not to allow ISPs to monitor communications more,” Paulo Rena said, a law researcher at a local University.
If the bill passes, telecom companies would register profit falls. “You either side with users’ privacy or with connection providers’ interests to profit from users’ logs,” congressman Alessandro Molon said.