Brazil approves online patrols to detect child pornography
The sixth panel of Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice has approved the use of police software to conduct online patrols that scan peer-to-peer file-sharing networks for child pornography.
The decision means that judicial authorization is not required for the police to use tools to search public digital environments where files are exchanged between users.
The police also do not need authorization to directly request registration information linked to an IP address from internet service providers.
The opinion of Judge Rogério Schietti, rapporteur for the case, prevailed. He believes that online patrols should not be confused with invasions, which do require judicial authorization and in which police officers infiltrate private digital environments with a specific target.
The case is tied to Operação Predador (“Operation Predator”), an integrated effort between civil police forces to combat pedophilia on the internet. Using CRC (Child Rescue Coalition) software, security agents detected the sharing of illegal files from a dentist’s computer in Mato Grosso do Sul state.
The man was then the subject of searches authorized by court authorities and was charged after a computer storing the child pornography images was found. The defense appealed, arguing that the investigation was illegal because the police did not have court authorization when they first infiltrated the private digital environment.
Schietti refuted the argument, denying there had been any violation of the privacy or intimacy. The judge pointed out that the online patrol automatically scans open networks, where data are available to any user.
“This is not, therefore, an invasion of privacy or interception of communications, which would require prior judicial authorization, but rather the collection of information available in a shared environment. It is a continuous patrol, not directed at specific individuals,” he argued.
The rapporteur also pointed out that the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet gives the police direct access, without a court order, to basic registration data linked to an IP address – such as name, parentage, and address. This information is not protected by confidentiality, Judge Schietti emphasized.
