The Brazilian Civil Code is undergoing a series of changes, which happen as a result of recurring decisions taken by courts throughout the national territory. Among them, is the creation of Digital Law, establishing protection and guarantees to citizens within the virtual environment.
The changes in the legislation related to the regulation of Law in the online environment are positive and very welcome, and in this regard Brazil is still behind the United States and European Union countries, which a few years ago published its own statement on digital rights and principles. Thus, the new Brazilian legislation comes at a good time to increase the debate and questioning on the subject.
By defining the legality and regularity of the acts and activities that are developed in the digital environment, the objective is to strengthen the exercise of private autonomy, preserving the dignity of people and organizations and the security of their assets. It is seen with great good eyes, for example, the definition of what is digital heritage and its correlation with the right of succession.
With regulation, digital assets can be inherited and described in will. This is extremely important for today, where YouTube channels, for example, can have billionaire values. The legal successors of deceased people can request that their profiles on social networks be deleted or converted into memorials.
With the legislation, the removal of links in search engines that show intimate personal images, creating the possibility of compensation to victims. However, at present, the inclusion of civil liability for data leakage is already something very well regulated by the General Data Protection Law (Law 13,709/2018). Dealing with the same theme in two laws of the same level may, in the future, generate interpretative confusion.
This demonstrates that perhaps some inclusions of the Digital Law to the Civil Code may not be the most correct. However, it is known that mistakes are part of the evolution of the subject, still quite new to the legislator. The main benefit of the changes is the legal certainty of both individuals and companies, allowing their conduct to be regulated in a reasonably predictable and stable way.
At points where the law remains vague, generating scope for different interpretations, decisions made by the courts will fit. These will standardize their understandings as the volume of legal issues are increasing and being brought under consideration.
Other important changes envisaged are the recognition of digital identity as an official means of identification of citizens, with regulation of the use of electronic signature; and requirement of clear identification of use of AI tools (Artificial Intelligence). Authorization will be required for the creation of images of people, whether they are still alive or already deceased.
