Guidelines for the Protection of the Fundamental Right to Informational Self-Determination in the Digital Age

Abstract

The consolidation of the digital society has imposed profound transformations on social, economic, and legal dynamics, generating unprecedented risks to fundamental rights, especially with regard to privacy and informational self-determination, whose fragility is exacerbated by the deficiency of a normative framework capable of ensuring their protection. In this context, the present article seeks to help overcome this problem by formulating guidelines aimed at enhancing the national legal framework, on the basis of an analysis of foreign experiences. To this end, the research adopts a qualitative approach, employing deductive and inductive methods, grounded in a literature and documentary review of national and foreign legal doctrine and case law. The analysis begins with an understanding of the multiple dimensions of fundamental rights in the digital age, discusses the application of the principle of human dignity, and deepens the study of informational self-determination as an autonomous manifestation of the subject over their personal data. The work also examines the normative and jurisprudential frameworks of Brazil, Germany, and the European Union. Finally, it proposes guidelines for the practical implementation of the right to informational self-determination, such as the adoption of institutional policies based on privacy by design and privacy by default, and the provision of swift mechanisms of judicial and administrative protection. It concludes that the protection of informational self-determination today constitutes an ethical and legal imperative for preserving not only human dignity, but also for safeguarding trust in the digital ecosystem, which is undeniably inseparable from social life in contemporary society.