Tool launched this Friday (June 28) automatically hides sensitive data; extra work to anonymize information led federal agencies to deny Freedom of Information Act requests
The CGU (Office of the Comptroller General of the Union) is launching this Friday (June 28, 2024) a tool that will allow federal agencies to automatically block sensitive data within public documents.
The aim is to overcome a current transparency bottleneck: there are situations in which public officials deny sharing documents in responses to LAI requests (Access to Information Act) saying that there is a lot of sensitive data to be blocked.
This marking is classified as “additional work“, one of the reasons accepted by law for refusing to share information. In such cases, the most common is that documents of public interest end up not being made available to citizens. With the new tool, this justification should no longer be possible.
This type of response became more frequent after the LGPD (General Data Protection Law) came into force in September 2020. The law establishes rules for the processing of sensitive personal data.
According to the CGU, several agencies reported difficulties in processing this personal information to hide or anonymize it (preserving the information in a way that makes it impossible to identify the person behind the data).
The new tool uses artificial intelligence to identify and tag documents. It will be integrated into the system Fala.Brthrough which federal public bodies receive requests for information.
According to the CGU, all 323 bodies and entities of the federal Executive Branch will have access to the tool. Another 700 bodies linked to 9 States and 359 municipalities that adopted the Fala.Br system will also be able to use it.
In addition to using it in responses to LAI requests and in ombudsman documents, agencies will also be able to use the system to label documents and then actively share them (without a LAI request).
The system was developed by Petrobras and adapted by CGU for use by public bodies. Therefore, it is not open source.
“As the code belongs to Petrobras, the CGU itself had to sign an agreement with the company so that it could grant it for use within Fala.BR“, says Ana Túlia, National Secretary for Access to Information. She states, however, that other public entities can start using Fala.Br and also have access to the tool.
Only target what is sensitive
For Marina Atoji, director of programs at Transparência Brasil, the initiative has potential “revolutionary” of opening public documents. She recalls LAI requests made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which diplomatic cables were not delivered with the justification of additional work to tarnish sensitive data.
Atoji says that, however, the tool must respect some precautions:
- no “supertarjar“ – “The government of the State of SP, for example, places LAI requests on active transparency. But they use an algorithm to remove sensitive information that ends up classifying any number as if it were a personal telephone number. And then you end up with a lot of information that shouldn’t be crossed out.”, says the expert;
- manual review – A tool that acts automatically may, in addition to hiding sensitive data, end up hiding other data of public interest, such as, for example, the name of an official responsible for a certain public policy.
Ana Túlia says that these risks are avoided because the system is not 100% automatic. “The server continues to have the obligation to evaluate the document and confirm it before responding to the Access Law request. It can review incorrect markings and leave only those that are about sensitive data“, he says.
How it will work
According to the CGU, the tool will automatically identify and hide personal data in documents requested by the LAI.
Here’s how the controller says the system will work:
- The user will upload a file in PDF format to the system;
- The tool will identify patterns such as CPFs, addresses and bank accounts in the text and highlight the passages it identified as having personal data;
- The employee responding to the LAI request will be able to download the pre-processed file and make edits, adding or removing markings before sending the response to the person who made the LAI request.
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