ICT and Human Rights in Brazil: The Invisible Dictatorship of Electronic Surveillance

Since the end of military government in Brazil, civilian governments have sought the accumulation and exercise of power to the detriment of the citizenry. Since the 1990s they have started to implement information technology in the public sector to regulate and run the country in a command-and-control way through technological or bureaucratic dictatorship rather than democratic process. While it is evident that there is a high level of investment in information technology in the public sector (e-government) in Brazil, there are also clear signs of the violation of human rights in terms of privacy. It is alleged that thousands of individual files have been accessed in the public administration, despite the privacy protection offered by the national constitution. This paper shows how information technology (e-government) in Brazil could lead to violations of human rights, including invisible electronic surveillance that affects civil liberties and individual rights.