Muvija M reports that the owner of a massive database with information on millions of Brazilians is still undetermined and under investigation:
Credit data firm Experian said on Monday it was continuing to investigate whether the personal data of millions of people in Brazil that was found to be illegally offered for sale online could be connected with its Brazilian business Serasa.
UK-listed Experian, the world’s largest credit data group, said so far it had found that the data offered for sale included photographs, social security details, vehicle registrations and social media login details, which Serasa does not collect or hold.
Read more on Reuters. Inquiries sent to Serasa last month by DataBreaches.net received no reply. Nor did the individual who had listed the database on a popular forum respond to inquiries sent to their email address.
The fact that there are huge databases with detailed information on citizens is no surprise. The fact that it is so difficult to learn who owns a particular database is no surprise, either. But it should serve as a reminder that consumers have a right and need to know who is holding personal information on them, how they are using it, and how they share it with others — and when consent is required. Europe’s GDPR was intended to enhance data protection, and Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (or LGPD) was inspired by the GDPR. But now what is the Brazilian authority doing to effectively investigate this breach, attribute it, and investigate whether data protection laws were violated?
In November, the Court of Justice of the Federal Districts and Territories (‘TJDFT’) had issued a decision ordering Serasa Experian to stop selling consumer personal data because such sale violated LGPD. If it should turn out that the data in the current situation was sold by Serasa Experian or shared by them with some third party, the date of such transaction and its implications could be significant.