Autodeterminação informativa em plataformas digitais

Abstract

An innovation marked by digital platforms is based on information and communication technologies with extensive processing of personal data, which has changed the way individuals understand and perceive their privacy and personal data. The previous concept based on the "right to be left alone" is expanded and updated to also encompass the idea of ensuring that the individual has control over their data and its use by third parties. It is within this landscape that legislation establishes the right-duty of informational self-determination as the legal framework sets rules and guarantees for the data subject that allow for effective control and influence over the processing of their data, including access to clear and accessible information. In their relationship with digital platforms, users have already understood the importance of their data as assets and as a guarantee of the free development of their personality. However, in practice, individuals exercise little – or no – influence over the processing of their personal data by these platforms, increasing the vulnerability and informational asymmetry present in the informational relationship. At the same time, the applicable legislation also provides few inputs on how platforms should ensure the exercise of users' informational self-determination in practice, limiting them to informing about all relevant aspects of the applicable personal data processing. The combination of these factors results in an ineffectiveness of legal rules on the subject, making it difficult to guarantee users' informational self-determination and the free development of their personality. Legal rules and guidelines should establish the conditions under which protection must occur for to achieve balance and equity in the informational relationship, based not only on legal conditions but also on multidisciplinary proposals that assess the user's experience journey during the legal relationship, from the beginning to its termination. For this conclusion to be true and for the exercise of informational self-determination not to be considered utopian, users and digital platforms need to act with diligence and good faith.