The Brazilian Internet of Things (IoT) Plan and how it affects the market
The Internet of Things is gaining more space every day. It seems that this caught the attention of the government, which in late June issued a presidential decree establishing the National Internet of Things Plan. The Plan aims to give more space to the development of the Internet of Things in Brazil, encouraging the implementation of new technologies.
Another important point that the National Plan defines is free competition and free movement of data, without leaving the security of personal data aside.
To develop this regulatory and incentive work, the first step will be the creation of the “Machine-to-Machine and Internet of Things Communication Systems Development Management and Monitoring Chamber”, which will be responsible for monitoring and advising on the implementation of the National IoT.
The regulation and supervision will be in charge of Anatel, since IoT networks are considered telecommunication systems.
What changes in market with the National IoT Plan?
Among the attributions of the chamber that will be created are:
• Improve people’s quality of life and promote service efficiency gains through the implementation of IoT solutions;
• Promote professional training related to the development of IoT applications and job creation in the digital economy;
• Increase productivity and foster the competitiveness of Brazilian IoT developers by promoting an innovation ecosystem in this sector and
• Seek partnerships with the public and private sectors for IoT implementation;
Therefore, with the official plan, government will focus on market and invest even more in large solutions with private companies, as well as foster job creation and training programs in 4 priority verticals, defined by the government team. : agribusiness, health, smart cities and industry.
In practice, the IoT market tends to gain more visibility and grow with the establishment of the National Plan and the upcoming initiatives to come. According to Werter Padilha, coordinator of the IoT Committee of ABES (Brazilian Association of Software Companies), it is possible that Anatel will approve devices with more speed to enable this growth.
The General Data Protection Act and the National IoT Plan
LGPD is changing the way companies handle personal data in the country. However, according to Werter, who spoke to Canaltech on the subject, “compliance is not necessarily guaranteed to the device itself, but to its use and applicability. As we know, LGPD takes care of authorizing the use of personal information. So, for example, if a smart device — an edge-processing camcorder — records a person’s image and processes it, arriving at the simple assessment that it is male or female and, for example, triggers a display indicating an offer of men’s or women’s shoes, this does not infringe on the LGPD But this same camera could have the computational power to register the image of people by associating it with an image bank by linking the full name and other information; in the latter case if there is no authorization then we will have the law broken. Please note that the issue here is not the device itself, its technology or operational capability, but its applicability and how individual data will be stored and processed forever.”
The National Plan of the Internet of Things came to officialize the new technologies in Brazil, with encouragement and control of the use of devices. The idea is to improve people’s quality of life through technology. This regulation is important because it brings security to the market, as well as new investments. It is a new moment for technology in country.