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Brazil's bill |of rights for internet gets green light [Cape Argus (South Africa)]
[April 24, 2014]

Brazil's bill |of rights for internet gets green light [Cape Argus (South Africa)]


(Cape Argus (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SÃO PAULO: Brazil's Congress has passed comprehensive legislation on internet privacy in what some have likened to a web users' bill of rights, after revelations its president was targeted by US cyber-snooping.



The lower House of Deputies had passed the bill earlier, and late on Tuesday the Senate gave it the green light. That leaves only the expected signature into law from President Dilma Rousseff.

"The bill sets out principles, guarantees, rights and duties for internet users and internet service providers" in Brazil, the Senate's website said.


The law is aimed at balancing freedom of expression and web users' rights to privacy and protection of personal data, Rousseff says.

Still, Brazilian authorities do not control what happens outside the country; the law stopped short of requiring companies such as Google and Facebook to store local users' data in Brazilian data centres.

Rousseff has spoken out forcefully against the cyber-snooping revealed by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. US eavesdropping targeted her staff's communications and those of Petrobras, the state oil giant.

The US National Security Agency's snooping so infuriated her that she cancelled a state visit to Washington scheduled for October in protest, and pushed for a UN resolution aimed at protecting "online" human rights.

The trove of documents leaked by Snowden sparked outrage about the vast capabilities of the US's intelligence programmes. President Barack Obama was forced to propose changes to the electronic surveillance of US citizens, including proposals put forward in March to take bulk phone data collection out of the hands of the National Security Agency.

At the opening of the global NETmundial conference yesterday, Rousseff praised the US for its decision to ease control over the internet and called for a more democratic, transparent network. "The internet we want will only be possible in a scenario of respect for human rights, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression," she said.

"I salute the US government's recently announced plan to replace its links to (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) with a global management of those institutions," she added, referring to the US-based bodies in charge of assigning internet domains or addresses. - Sapa-AFP, Reuters Cape Argus (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company

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