Telecom and technology: a brief retrospective of 2022

In an article published on the Estadão website, Dr. Matheus Puppe, partner in the TMT, Privacy & Data Protection area at Maneira Advogados, gives a brief retrospective of the most notable events of 2022 in the area of Telecom and Technology.

Telecom and technology: a brief look back at 2022

By Matheus Puppe*

12/16/2022

Certainly, 2022 was a favorable year for technological development. Several fronts have affected the telecommunications and technology sector, causing major economic boosts, but bringing many regulatory challenges.

We started the year with 5G, a technology that revolutionized the sector, enabling assertive mass connectivity, with speed that transformed several sectors.

This allowed the expansion of the “internet of things”, and consequently global connectivity for increasingly autonomous solutions, thus paving the way for the expanded use of artificial intelligence in everyday solutions, such as public and residential lighting, household appliances, medical devices and others. The regulation also required a collective effort (still ongoing) from municipalities to standardize and implement legislation that enabled the acceleration of 5G network installation.

In addition to residential, commercial and public policy uses, the strengthened agribusiness in 2022 established a closer connection between the Telecom sector and agribusiness, as the use of technology enabled the transformation of the sector, by connecting and transforming the agribusiness sector through the use of new geotechnical equipment, tractors and autonomous agricultural machines, with the use of artificial intelligence to transform agroindustrial production.

New challenges were also highlighted.

Data protection has taken hold. The General Data Protection Law (LGPD) took the center of Brazil's digital privacy legislation, placing itself as one of the most advanced laws in the world after the GDPR. The LGPD is a set of rules designed to give citizens more control over their data, requiring companies to protect the personal data and privacy of their customers, leads and prospects.

The law that gives data subjects broad rights to access, rectify and delete their personal data, as well as to withdraw consent to its use, became even more visible with the functional autonomy of the ANPD (National Data Protection Authority), transformed into a special one, where the organizational structure and competencies were maintained. The enactment of the Law in 2022 strengthened the protection of personal data in Brazil, and prepared the ground for more active inspections and sanctions.

Still in data protection, with a focus on the resurgence and active application of the law, the dosimetry of the penalty was developed, and parameters for sanctions were established.

ANPD also had an active year, preparing opinions on the exchange of data from a large technology group, establishing guidelines and parameters and consolidating its presence as a national authority.

In parallel, we experienced a mass judicialization on privacy topics, with users seeking their rights, and Procon applying sanctions related to the LGPD, in addition to fines from the Judiciary.

Such resurgence in data privacy greatly affects the Telecom sector, as its ways of processing and sharing data had to be changed.

We also had an expansion of the tokenization process and use of cryptoactives. With the CVM regulating (albeit superficially) the sector, companies began the process of financing projects through the issuance of tokens. Various types of tokens such as NFTs, Asset Backed Tokens, Utility tokens, Security tokens, Equity tokens, among others, have enabled numerous operations, whether marketing, intellectual property protection (NFT), equity capitalization and distribution, among others. An area of Digital Law that tends to expand even further in 2023.

Furthermore, now at the end of the year, and after long discussions and inspiration from US and European Union bills, we are experiencing the Artificial Intelligence Law, whose report was published recently. The AI Law has the potential to regulate several sectors, especially Telecom, where the increasingly forceful and massive use of AI for solving internal problems, marketing, sales and customer conversions, has transformed the market and should receive self-regulation (regulated) as well as data protection.

Anyway, 2022 was the year of technological developments and expansion of regulations and laws in the sector, paving the way for a 2023 with even more challenges and rules, but also with possibilities, mainly exploring the conscious use of data, AI and potential for expanding the token and crypto market, in a new format.

*Matheus Puppe, partner in the TMT, Privacy & Data Protection area at Maneira Advogados. member of the CNJ Compliance GT and the Judiciary Integrity Committee (CINT); guest professor at the postgraduate course in New Technologies, Compliance, ESG and Contracts at USP

https://www.estadao.com.br/politica/blog-do-fausto-macedo/telecom-e-tecnologia-uma-breve-retrospectiva-de-2022/