Global corporations will soon have another privacy law acronym to address. In one year (August 2020), Brazil will join the fray with its own general privacy law, the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessaoais (General Data Privacy Law or LGPD). The law was passed in 2018, and is set to go into effect a year from now. While the law was designed to be similar to the EU’s GDPR, it is not identical. Individuals will receive very similar access and deletion rights. Like GDPR, the law also contemplates data impact assessments, and provisions in contracts between controllers and processors of personal data. Also like GDPR, the law has extraterritorial impact, applying to those who process or collect information in Brazil, even if the entity is itself outside of the country. There are, though, differences between LGPD and GDPR. For example the amount of time to respond to individuals’ rights requests will be shorter. The definition of personal information under LGPD is also broader.  The law will be enforced by Brazil’s new National Data Protection Authority, and carries penalties that are similar to GDPR. Before the law goes into effect, it is expected that the data protection authority will issue regulations.

Putting it Into Practice: As we await implementing regulations for this new law, companies with global reach will want to start thinking about how they will provide rights in Brazil, if they are not already doing so already.