Brazil's ANPD Reforms Data Subject Request Procedures Under LGPD

On April 26, 2024, Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) together with the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (Seges/MGI) presented the results of a collaboration with Simplifica Consultoria Executoria in the way data subject requests, complaints, and petitions are handled under Brazil's data privacy law, the LGPD.

The Simplifica Consultoria Executoria aims to guide and empower federal public administration institutions to improve their work processes by focusing on their value to the public. It offers mentorship and methodologies for mapping, redesigning, and simplifying processes, which includes eliminating redundant activities, creating virtual and shared teams, updating regulations, and defining roles and responsibilities in selected critical and strategic processes.

In the case of data subject requests under the LGPD, the Simplifica Consultoria Executoria, which worked closely with the ANPD from June 2023 to March 2024, provided mentorship which focused on mapping and redesigning work processes with the purpose of improving technical knowledge and establishing best practices for the improvement of the LGPD’s enforcement processes. 

The result of their work, in the form of a restructured process, aimed at both simplifying and increasing the efficiency of Data Subject Requests (DSRs) handling under the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), which typically included data subjects' complaints about their inability to exercise their data rights with data controllers or complaints about other violations of the LGPD.

The collaboration has led to a more straightforward and effective workflow, with improvements which are still being implemented and which include:

• The reduction of procedural steps to ensure quicker response times.
• Forms and other documentation have been redesigned to be clearer and more user-friendly.
• Updates to the ANPD's website provide clearer, more accessible information for data subjects.

In the announcement on the ANPD’s website, Chief Executive Officer of ANPD, Waldemar Gonçalves, stated the following: 

The mentoring provided us with more tools to constantly evaluate our processes in order to make them more efficient and transparent. In the case of the treatment of the data subject requests, we will continue to improve the workflow through automation.

Kathyana Buonafina, the Deputy Secretary of Management and Innovation at MGI, emphasized the partnership's role in reinforcing data protection commitments and finding effective solutions tailored to institutional realities saying that 

The partnership between ANPD and Consultoria Simplifica reinforces the commitment to data protection and the search for effective solutions adapted to the reality of the institutions.