Protection of personal data in the judiciary: A new look at the principle of publicity of judicial

Abstract

The following investigation analyzes how new technologies influence and modify the current judicial processing. The transfer of the “paper universe” to electronic processing requires certain principles of law to be reconsidered, given that the temporal, geographical and storage barriers that existed through the processing of physical files are today largely overcome by digital technologies. It is proposed that the current situation forces us to rethink the principle of publicity of judicial proceedings, also considering the development of the new constitutional protection of personal data, analyzing cases in which the publicity of the proceedings is harmful and even a source of eventual discrimination for the people. Thus, it turns out that the current circumstances could generate a significant disincentive to litigate. Alternatives from comparative law are analyzed, which guide protection towards “anonymization”, a position to which this research adheres, and which considers a balance between protection of personal data and publicity of the actions.