We have been concerned about what companies with our data do. Brazil will allow money with them to win

Brazil has just crossed a line that promises to change forever the relationship between its citizens and their personal digital information: digital wallets to moneture their data.

Why is it important. The South American country has announced The first national program in the world which allows its citizens to own, manage and monetize their fingerprint. Brazil has decided to convert this information into economic assets for those who generate them instead of simply seeing how their citizens give data to technological ones.

The initiative, administered by Dataprev – state technology company – in alliance with the Californian Drumwave, will create personal data savings accounts. Users may deposit the information generated by their daily activities and receive economic offers from companies interested in buying it.

In detail. The system works like cookies of third partiesbut with a turn: instead of simply accept or reject, users can choose to make money. When they request a loan, for example, the contract data will be stored in their digital portfolio, and companies will be able to bid for them.

“People don’t get anything from the data they share,” explains Brittany Kaiser, co -founder of Own Your Data Foundation and Drumwave advisor, according to the official statement. “Brazil has decided that its citizens must have property rights over their data.”

• The pilot starts with a small group of Brazilians who will use loan portfolios.
• After accepting an offer from a company, the payment is deposited in the portfolio and can be transferred immediately to a bank account.

The context. This movement places Brazil ahead of the United States, where a similar initiative of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, It was raised in 2019 But he never took off.

If it is completely implemented, it will be the first public-private association that allows citizens-not to companies-to obtain a personal data market share.

Yes, but. Some specialists in Brazilian data protection have expressed serious doubts. In a country where three out of ten people are functional illiteratesaccording to official data, there is a risk that vulnerable populations sell their data without understanding the consequences.

“We will be asking for half of the country that you don’t know how Rest of World. “People in vulnerable situations will say yes, and that could be used against them.”

The background. The Brazilian Congress works on a bill that would classify data as personal property, exceeding the current legislation that considers them an inalienable right.

The new regulations would give people complete rights about their personal information, especially that generated “through the use and access of online platforms, applications, Marketplaceswebsites and connected devices “.

And now what. If this is consolidated, Brazil will sit a precedent that other countries can follow. The proposal promises “a correction in the historical imbalance of the digital economy,” according to Rodrigo Assumpção, president of Datapre. The idea: transform personal data into assets for those who provide them.

For companies such as Google, Meta or Amazon, accustomed to obtaining valuable data “simply” offering their platforms also for free, this proposal is an earthquake. For users it could be the first step towards a world where each clickeach search and each digital movement has a tangible market value.

Outstanding image | Samuel Costa Melo and Campaign Creators in Unspash

In Xataka | The AEPD already knows where the data of millions of freelancers who were on sale on the Internet have come from: the Chamber of Commerce