Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 4

expressly providing for the transmission of all digital content in the event of death. Both bills were criticized, mainly for authorizing the indiscriminate transmission of all the contents of the holder of the accounts to his or her successors, without any concern for the rights of personality, especially privacy and intimacy. However, neither of them was ever approved, being shelved. The same text of project 4.847 was re-edited by project 8.562/17. In turn, Law no. 12.965/14, known as “ Marco Civil da Internet” (Internet Civil Framework), created to regulate the use of the network and ensure the rights and duties of users and companies providing access and online services - although a recent diploma, does not provide specifically about digital assets, being silent about the succession of these assets in case of death. The Bill no. 1.331, of 2015, suggested the amendment of item X, of Article 7 of the Marco Civil da Internet to provide for the legitimacy of the spouse, ascendants and descendants to claim the deletion of the deceased's personal data. And the project no. 7.742, of 2017 provided for the inclusion of art. 10-A of Law no. 12.965/14, providing for the exclusion of the accounts of deceased users by internet providers. All these projects have been shelved. Currently in progress is Bill no. 5.820, of 2019, which proposes to amend article 1.881 of the Brazilian Civil Code, to include paragraph 4, to address codicil formalities to contemplate digital inheritance. Also from 2019 is Bill no. 6.468, which suggests a single paragraph to article 1.788, establishing the transmissibility of all digital content to heirs. Finally, the General Data Protection Law - no. 13.709/2018 -, the “LGPD” , created to protect the violation of privacy in relation to personal data, does not expressly provide for the protection of user personal data after their death. In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), the document that inspired the Brazilian law, in its recital 27, expressly provides for the inapplicability of the law for the protection of deceased person’s data, leaving it to the member states to establish the rules regarding their treatment. In Brazil, Article 1 of the LGPD refers to the processing of personal data, including by digital means, with the aim of protecting the fundamental rights of freedom, privacy and personality of the natural person. From the literal reading of the referred article, one cannot understand the applicability of LGPD to the data of deceased users, but also no prohibition is extracted. In this sense it is important to mention the considerations made by Honorato and Leal (2021) in the sense of the importance of this applicability, although they also understand that the question is left open, citing the express consent of the holder provided for in Article 7 as an example. And they question: "would the operating agent or responsible party be authorized to maintain the processing of personal data even after death or would there be a need for prior manifestation of the holder or authorization to relatives in this regard?" In this sense, it is not too much to mention Argentine law, which also does not contain any provisions about the destination of digital assets after the user's death, but ensures the right of access to the data of deceased persons by the universal successors, as can be extracted from the reading of art. 14.4 of Law no. 25.326/2000 – “Ley de Protección de los Datos Personales”. It is noted that, despite this, Argentine law does not establish parameters of how this access will be allowed and what the limit will be, which is why a new draft law was introduced in 2018, providing in its article 34 that universal successors will have, in addition to the right of access, the right to rectification, deletion and portability of the deceased's personal data, as well as the right to oppose the processing of such data. While these issues are being discussed in the neighboring country, in Brazil, in the absence of a specific law dealing with the projection of personal data after death, there are more questions than answers, which is why we will now address some of these questions. To do so, it is imperative to dialogue to the law of succession, which brings rules of patrimonial transmission from the deceased owner to his heirs. III. I n the Q uest for a L egal F ramework for D igital D ata According to article 1.784 of the Brazilian Civil Code, "when the succession is opened, the inheritance is immediately transmitted to the lawful and testamentary heirs", and the right of inheritance is assured as a fundamental right by article 5, item XXX, of the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (CRFB/88). When dealing with the content of the succession, the need arises to identify its object, i.e., that which is admitted as susceptible to transmission. Beviláqua (1932, p. 19) treats inheritance as equivalent to patrimony, defining it as "the universality of property that someone leaves behind on the occasion of his death, and that the heirs acquire. It is the set of goods, the patrimony, that someone leaves at death". In fact, the character of succession is linked to the idea of heritage, which can be translated into economic expression (goods, rights and obligations) and which must be succeeded by the application of its own legal instruments (the law and the last will disposition). Wald (2015, p.16) recalls that, at one time, inheritance law was linked to an extrapatrimonial sense, case of the Roman family, in a continuation of the domestic religion. Today, however, not anymore. © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 21 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 A 3 Succession of Digital Rights in Brazil: In Search of Appropriate Legal Treatment