

EU – Brazil: working together towards a gold standard in privacy protection - Aoyagi
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-454_en.htm

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cryoshon
This kind of initiative is really great. It's refreshing to see the
governments of major powers unite in order to enshrine protections for their
citizens.

It really paints a stark contrast with the USA-Russia-China totalitarianesque
power bloc, though. Our government in the US is currently weaseling out of net
neutrality while strongly pushing for omni-surveillance in addition to the
usual drumbeat of anti-liberty measures in the name of security. Here, the
message is that you have no privacy from the state, and if you want privacy
from the corporate branch of the state, you're probably a criminal.

I really wish we could point to this and shame our politicians into following
suit.

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dfc
Brazil is not a major power.

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gtirloni
In which area exactly? Since 2005 it's been featured in the top 10 biggest
economies.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_\(nominal\))

[http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/](http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/)

Do you mean it's not a major power in privacy-related matters? It might not be
and all the actions from the current president could just be PR stunts but at
least the talks are happening in a certain direction (opposite to the US
vision).

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dfc

      > In which area exactly?
    

This question really gets to the heart of what it means to be a major power.
If you have to narrow the examination to focus on somethings and exclude
others you are not dealing with a major power. Major powers are major players
in military, economic, diplomatic, and cultural spheres (it is important to
note that these are big spheres too, like global sized spheres). I have never
heard anyone say that Brazil is anything other than a regional power.

If you are interested in learning more about power in international relations
here are some wikipedia entries that might be a good start:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_%28international_relatio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_%28international_relations%29)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_power)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_power)

Addendum: It seems that you are from Brazil. Please do not take this
personally or interpret it as a dismissal of Brazil.

~~~
gtirloni
Got it, and it makes perfect sense. Your initial comment was a bit too dry so
I wanted to clarify. Thanks for those links, they look very interesting.

Brazil aspires to be a world power but its execution is always sub par. I
really like the quote that says "Brazil is the country of the future, and will
always be". It is so true.

We're certainly no military (our presence in Haiti is a joke) or economic
power (our GDP is increasing mainly due to population size and small
improvements in quality of life for really poor people, but industry
productivity and innovation are, again, a joke and not taken seriously here).
We like to think that in diplomatic issues Brazil has played some kind of
middleman role but that's questionable (people won't give you status/credit
just because.. and we don't even use the economic weight correctly, often
trying to be the good guys) and in cultural sphere.. well, soccer and carnival
are not something I'm proud of.

Thanks again for your explanation, it's certainly spot on.

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dfc
The aspirational bit is spot on and the G4 membership is a great example of
the bigger aspirations. When I said I had never heard Brazil mentioned as
anything other than a regional power I kind of lied. I have frequently heard
that Brazil aspires to be a major power.

I am glad that you did not take any offense to my comments. I actually have
always been interested in Brazil, the flag was probably one of the first
countries' flags I could recognize as a child after US, Canada and USSR (at
the time). My mother went to Brazil with American Foreign Service in the 60s.
So ever since I was a little kid I remember getting a Christmas card from her
host family and I have always wanted to take them up on the open offer to come
visit.

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madaxe_again
This is realpolitik jazz-hands with football thrown in to make light of a
topic of grave importance.

Also, of course, any framework set up today to control data tomorrow will
tomorrow be turned on its head and used as a legislative basis for expanded
intrusive activities.

~~~
gtirloni
The funny thing is that soccer is usually used here to distract people from
the real issues (corruption, privacy, healthcare, public transportation,
education, etc).

I wonder if this "Vice-President of the European Commission" has any idea that
her message will be read as "blah blah blah world cup blah blah go team! blah
blah blah".

I really hope Brazil loses this tournament, that the abuses in building the
stadiums are scrutinized further and a lot of government officials and
companies are punished for this ridiculous private event paid with people's
tax money. Yes, I'm a dreamer.

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throwaway6637
So... aside from the hot air, the only concrete thing I got from that press
release was that the EU politicians are so pissed that the EU court struck
down their draconian data retention laws that they're going to pass a new one
that resolves the technicalities on which the old one was struck down.

And apparently, this is somehow going to bring the EU to "a gold standard in
privacy protection". What?

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higherpurpose
> the only concrete thing I got from that press release was that the EU
> politicians are so pissed that the EU court struck down their draconian data
> retention laws that they're going to pass a new one that resolves the
> technicalities on which the old one was struck down.

Where did you read that? Are you confusing the "data protection" with "data
retention" terms? They sound similar but are opposite laws/movements.

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throwaway6637
In the article.

"These are safeguards that were missing in the EU's Data Retention Directive.
As a result, the Directive has been invalidated by the Court of Justice of the
EU, Europe's highest court. The court said: the violation of individuals'
rights was of "vast scope and particular gravity". One thing is certain: it
will be have to be revised, with greater protection included for individuals."

So, we really need to protect privacy better, but we're still going to
preemptively wiretap everyone in case some of them turn out to be criminals.

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TazeTSchnitzel
>On data privacy, like in football, we are playing in the same direction; to
score a goal and win the Championship for a gold standard in privacy
protection! A combined EU-Brazil team can be a winner.

Did that sound any better in French or German?!

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jusben1369
I read it in Spanish but got stuck at "Goooooooaaaaa

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zimbatm
Has anything been done to locate and disable existing tapping devices
installed by the NSA ? What has been put in place to harden existing
infrastructures from intrusion by rogue actors ?

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garou
Well... this really is something good. The 'Marco Civil' came in response to
law projects ('AI-5-digital' or 'Lei Azeredo') that harm the privacy of
Brazilian citizen. But there are negative features in 'Marco Civil' take too
long to be fixed. This all because was approved with haste.

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higherpurpose
I wouldn't mind seeing stronger trade relationship between EU and Brazil/South
America, too. Hopefully this is the beginning of a great relationship, both
united against abuses of countries like US, Russia or China.

