Report: Privacy in Latin America During COVID-19 Times and Reasonable Digital Security

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has tested the business and human capacity in Latin America to adapt to the digital world. While the world has experienced similar developments in privacy and data protection, the Latin American region is rarely analysed as a whole in terms of privacy and data protection. Besides GDPR, Latin America has older and even more robust data protection regimes than the US and is now quickly shifting to cybersecurity. In this article, we provide a quick overview of the data protection regimes in Latin America to summarize representative actions that countries in Latin America took for the protection of privacy and personal data during the pandemic period. We examine the factors and circumstances that have affected the region’s privacy through this period, including unsuitable data processing, the design of new tracking technologies, teleworking, the risks of relying on digital platforms, and alleged new cybersecurity regulation. With that in mind, we are making a value proposition towards identifying common factors for a reasonable security in order to help companies preparing to confront risks. This digital trend will undoubtedly resonate on the complexity of data transfers inbound and outbound the region, and the consequences of security breaches for those improperly processing data in the region. Mexico, Latin America, COVID-19, Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity, Personal Data, Data Processing, Incident Response, Teleworking, Reasonable Security, Privacy