ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the conflict between the right to privacy and security in the use of new technologies for the fight against crime, with a special emphasis on the Brazilian scenario. After the end of the Second World War, and primarily as a response to the use of personal information to identify ethnic groups, the right to privacy was promoted to the status of a human right. Brazil has no general data protection regulation and its data protection legal framework is based mainly on privacy constitutional provisions and sectorial data protection rules. It is worth noting that the purpose principle, which is one of the core principles of all data protection laws, is not expressly recognized in general terms by the Brazilian legislation. In 2004 an internal regulation of the House of Representatives provided specific rules for the use of e-mail by their deputies and staff.
