Fabián Volio, president of the Constitutional Law Commission of the Bar Association, argues that the Central Bank of Costa Rica lacks a legal basis for requesting personal data from other public entities. He maintains that the laws invoked by the monetary authority were not approved as qualified exceptions to the constitutional protection of privacy, thereby invalidating the centralization of sensitive information under the pretext of compiling economic statistics. This perspective highlights the serious error of interpreting OECD recommendations as norms superior to the Constitution. The Office of the Attorney General erred in using these suggestions to justify the weakening of fundamental rights, ignoring the fact that Costa Rica did not cede sovereignty upon joining the organization. Consequently, no external recommendation can have a binding effect that overrides internal privacy protections. This stance is crucial for open data, as it establishes an ethical and legal boundary between administrative transparency and the right to privacy. By warning against the risk of a surveillance state, the article reinforces that data collection must strictly respect constitutional guarantees. This implies that transparency and open data initiatives must not compromise individual privacy, ensuring that institutional interoperability does not become a tool for illegal mass surveillance.

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Published on 2023-09-30