São Paulo Court of Justice decides that the monitoring of mobile phones of São Paulo citizens by the State Government is valid.
According to a recent decision rendered by the Special Body of the São Paulo Court of Justice, an agreement that allows the government to receive information on the displacement of citizens to identify places where there are agglomeration of people does not violate individual rights, since the data obtained would be anonymous and confidential.
In this case, the Court denied a lawsuit filed against a cooperation agreement signed between the Government of the State of São Paulo and telephone operators, which aims to monitor the mobile phones of citizens of São Paulo during the period of social isolation, due to the pandemic of COVID-19.
The reporter judge Getúlio Evaristo dos Santos Neto understood that the technical clarification proves the statistical and impersonal nature of the information collected. Therefore, he concluded that personal data are not being used, but only anonymized related to the number of connections to the base radio stations of the operators to check the areas with the greatest movement of people. The decision was rendered by a majority of votes.
Lawsuit No. 2073723-23.2020.8.26.0000
More information is available, in Portuguese, in: https://www.conjur.com.br/2020-jun-08/tj-sp-valida-monitoramento-celulares-governo-estado