On April 29, the Executive adopted Provisional Measure No. 959, which delays the entry into force of the General Law on the Protection of Personal Data (LGPD, for its acronym in Spanish). The regulation was intended to take effect as of August this year, but will instead now be pushed back to May 2021.

This regulation means that the government has postponed to May 3, 2021, the entry into force of the LGPD, which defines minimum standards and the way in which state agencies and companies must treat the data and personal information of Brazilian citizens, including those collected through the use of the Internet or social networks. This provision was included in the measure that regulates the payment of the emergency subsidy for the coronavirus crisis.

The law, passed in 2018, was expected to come into force in August this year, obliging companies and the government itself to use the data according to certain principles, such as informing the holders and using the information exclusively for the purpose for which it was collected.

Although in Brazil these types of executive measures have the force of law from the moment of their publication in the Official Gazette, Congress must subsequently ratify them, approving the text sent by the government or modifying its content. The Legislature is expected to start studying it in the next few days.