Nomination and approval of Data Protection Authority’s Directors nominees


Nomination and approval of Data Protection Authority’s Directors nominees


The five members of the Brazilian Data Protection Authority’s board of directors were nominated on October 15th by the President Jair Bolsonaro. The nominees are (i) Waldemar Gonçalves Ortunho Junior, nominated to be the President-Director of the Counsel, with a six-year term of office; (ii) Arthur Pereira Sabbat, with five-year term of office; (iii) Joacil Basilio Rael, with a four-year term of office; (iv) Nairane Farias Rabelo Leitão, with a three-year term of office; and (v) Miriam Wimmer, with a two-year term of office. The nominees have a technical background experience in telecommunications.

The nomination of the members of Brazilian Data Protection Authority’s board of directors is a big step towards data protection in Brazil. International experience demonstrates that the authorities often play a fundamental role when it comes to law enforcement, not only preventing but also repressing data misuse, helping to create a culture of privacy.

On Monday 19th the Senate voted to approve or reject the nominees appointed to be directors of the Brazilian National Data Protection Authority. As the procedure needed to be completed with celerity, due to the pandemic rules, only the Committee’s president, Senator Marcos Rogério, questioned the nominees. There were brief interventions by other senators but no questions were asked. At the end of the procedure, the nominees answered questions proposed by the public that covered international data transfers, the enforcement of LGPD when it comes to small to medium companies and the guarantees to be taken to ensure the social participation on decision making by the Authority. Waldemar Gonçalves Ortinho Júnior, Director-President nominee of the Authority’s board of directors, stated that the Authority must consider the usage of Brazilians data with caution and responsibility.

The Committee of Infrastructure approved all five nominees and the procedure will move forward to the Senate.