Data breach on social media: what are the rights of platforms’ users?
While social media privacy policies are constantly improving through the adoption of measures to protect the users’ rights, large companies and organizations which collect and store personal data in order provide their services are still subject to unforeseen events, such as data breaches.
In these cases, users, as owners of their personal data, must have total freedom and control over their personal information made available online. According to the Brazilian General Protection of Personal Data Law (“LGPD”), the rights of the data subject include, for instance, having access to the specific purpose of collecting their data and requesting the termination of data processing, with the total erasure of the data from the platform’s database.
The user shall also be compensated in case of damages resulting from data and information breaches, as provided by LGPD.
As precaution, users are recommended to, after any data breach, change all their online passwords, avoid accessing links sent by e-mail with data breach information, and install antivirus software on their electronic devices.