The effects on local innovation arising from replicating the GDPR into the Brazilian General Data Protection Law

Abstract

Following the implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe exported its data protection standards to Brazil’s data protection legislation. Besides its manifest aim of providing data privacy rights, the GDPR also fosters economic benefits by incentivising the innovation of privacy-enhancing technologies. Therefore, using a TWAIL-based de-colonising methodology, this research article assesses the effects for innovation in Brazil arising from reproducing the European data regulation. It argues that this replication provided the LGPD with the principles that compel firms to innovate in the Brazilian privacy-enhancing technologies market. However, the Western firms, to the detriment of Brazilian firms, appropriate the resulting economic benefit of innovation because the former excel at introducing and securing technology monopolies in the Brazilian market. To rebalance opportunities for Brazilian firms, this paper advocates implementing local content policy for privacy-enhancing technologies, which requires firms to purchase a portion of their operations’ inputs in the domestic market.