Personal data as the object of the prosecutorial claim: purpose as a limiting criterion for the Acquisition, use, and reuse of Information in criminal investigations
Digital evidence. Criminal Procedure. Data Protection. Evidentiary Purpose
This dissertation examines the use of personal data as the object of the prosecutorial claim within criminal procedure, situated in the context of the increasing use of such information in criminal investigations and the inadequacy of procedural rationality to safeguard fundamental rights such as due process, privacy, and informational self-determination. The mismatch between technological realities and the theoretical justifications of the law motivated the research. The guiding question asks whether Brazilian procedural rationality is adequate to ensure the lawfulness of the acquisition, use, and reuse of personal data in criminal proceedings, in accordance with the principle of purpose limitation. The formulated hypothesis asserts that this principle, originally developed in the field of data protection, carries normative content applicable to criminal procedure, acting as a limiting criterion on the epistemic potential of the use and reuse of information when diverted from the function that justified its collection. To address this question, the dissertation draws on criminological analyses of risk to examine the informational infrastructures available to states and private companies for collecting personal data in both digital and physical environments. The first part identifies that data retention constitutes a recurrent public policy in Brazil, grounded in the legitimate interest of public security and characterized by the absence of clear criteria for transferring data to preliminary investigations. The second part analyzes Brazilian normative sources and procedural dogmatics to describe the ways personal data enter the investigative phase as informational elements. In conclusion, the hypothesis is confirmed: Brazilian criminal procedural rationality does not bind the use and reuse of data to the purpose delineated by the investigative hypothesis, while the principle of purpose limitation demonstrates sufficient legal content to impose boundaries on the use of such information.