Tech Roundup: Data protection and academia

This week: The limits of using personal data in scientific research. A torrid 2021 for Brazil’s Health Ministry, targeted by hackers. Argentina is not keen on crypto. 

Regulators to decide on how academia can use private data

In response to questions posed by courts and universities, Brazil’s data protection regulator ANPD has launched a discussion on the limits researchers and scholars will have to adhere to when handling personal data in their scientific work. 

Why it matters. The legal uncertainty around what is and isn’t allowed can be a deterrent to innovation and science — as researchers can quickly find themselves straying into legal liability.

• One federal university told the ANPD that, as a precautionary measure, it has “decided to deny access to information requests for research purposes until there is a clear regulatory framework available.”

Where the agency stands. In its preliminary study on the matter, the ANPD hinted that it may lean on the side of researchers, saying that data protection laws are “fully compatible with freedom of expression guarantees and with the spirit of pluralism that must reign in academic spaces.”

• It adds that Brazil’s Data Protection Law (LGPD) explicitly recognizes “the legitimacy of using personal data for research and academic studies.”

Timetable. A ruling on the issue should come within the next 30 days.

Hackers really went after Brazil’s Health Ministry in 2021

The Health Ministry’s  servers were the biggest Brazilian targets of hackers last year. According to data from Datasus — the computerized system managing all of Brazil’s public health databases — hacking attempts and intrusions using privileged access credentials rose 1,899 percent in 2021.

• “The health area is attacked the most,...