Herança de bens e perfis de contas de redes sociais digitais no direito brasileiro

Abstract

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 guarantees rights as inheritance rights and personalities’ rights, which includes privacy, honour and peoples’ image. Nevertheless, with the growing presence of social media, it emerges the question about the digital inheritance, that involves digital property heritage, such as social medias’ accounts and other online personal data. The Brazilian legislation still doesn’t have any specific rules about digital inheritance, and in this way, the Law faces challenges when it comes to adapting to new technological realities. When a person passes away, the question of what happens to these digital assets arises. The lack of specific regulations on the subject leads to legal uncertainty, with the Judiciary having to deal with the situation through decisions based on non-specific and incomplete rules, such as the Constitution and the Civil Code. Bills attempt to address digital inheritance, proposing that digital assets and accounts can be passed on to heirs. However, the legislation still lacks specificities on how to deal with personal data and digital assets, in addition to challenges such as privacy and security. The Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) of 2018 addresses the protection of personal data, but does not directly regulate digital inheritance, highlighting the need for a will or prior consent for the processing of digital assets after death. Thus, due to the need for legislation, since 2023, there have been debates about updating the Civil Code to fill the gaps left by the regulatory vacuum and change those that have become anachronistic.