Protecting personal data in the digital economy in Latin America

In the digital economy, services like banks, pharmacies, and mobile phone providers make intensive use of personal data to shape the rules of intermediation within specific business spheres. Data collection is used for targeted marketing or relationship management and to govern patterns of interactions in the marketplace.

Data protection laws are rapidly emerging throughout Latin America to protect citizens against the potential impacts of platform business practices. However, studying the implementation of these laws or their ability to protect vulnerable populations is difficult because there is little knowledge of how to study “datafication” (the transformation of social action into quantified data) and how it affects local populations.

This project addresses these concerns by developing and applying a set of tools and techniques to audit private sector use of personal data and to produce policy-relevant findings about how the increasing ubiquity of digital platforms affects the delivery of services in the region. Case studies will address services in the fields of healthcare, telecommunications, and finance in Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.