As we well know, there are regulations that regulate the protection of personal data, the REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 27, 2016 relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and the free circulation of these data, better known as General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR.
This standard regulates the principles that govern the processing of personal data, consent for its processing, its legitimacy, the rights that protect it, the creation of profiles, the measures that must be established to protect rights and other issues that seek to mitigate the risks. risks in the processing of personal data. But the advancement of technologies goes further and scientists and jurists seek to protect our brain and the information contained in it. In this context, a movement arises that speaks of the neurorights, who call for a new international legal framework of human rights specifically aimed at protecting the brain and its activity, as advances in neurotechnology occur.
Types of neurorights
1.- Right to Personal Identityl. Under this right, boundaries must be set to prohibit technology from disrupting one's sense of self. The autonomy of will must be protected when neurotechnology connects people with digital networks.
2.- Right to mental privacy. According to which, any data obtained from the analysis and measurement of neuronal activity must be stored with the consent of the interested party. Its commercial use (sale, international transfer, marketing, etc.) must be regulated.
3.- Right to free will. This right aims to guarantee that people can make decisions freely, with their own will and without being manipulated by technology.
4.- Right to equitable access to neurocognition. This right seeks to establish guidelines that delimit and regulate the application of any technology that improves brain activity. Access on equal terms to these technologies must be encouraged, so that they are not reserved for a small sector with high purchasing power.
5.- Right to protection against bias and discrimination. This right advocates that knowledge of neuroscience does not establish discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, political opinion, nationality, birth, economic position or any other personal or social condition or circumstance.
Why protect these rights?
We have been able to verify how applications to have extramarital relations, (Ashley Madison case) looked for their clients' weaknesses to exploit their desires and generate the maximum possible profit. To do this, they created numerous websites, each one specialized in a type of sexual fantasy, and they applied marketing techniques to make them addicted.
Likewise, in the Cambridge Analytica case, this company improperly collected information on 50 million users of the social network Facebook. For this reason, Mark Zuckerberg was forced to acknowledge that Facebook made mistakes in the midst of the worst scandal faced by the social network. These data, according to the information published by The New York Times and The Observer, were later used to psychologically manipulate voters in the 2016 US elections, in which Donald Trump was elected president.
The consequences of these events have prompted the creation of regulations that protect beyond the current ones, since the use of the latest technology and that which may appear in the near future can lead to undesirable effects.
International protection of neurorights: The case of Chile
After a constitutional reform process (Law 21,383), Chile has included the protection of brain information, adding the following final paragraph:
“Article 19.- The Constitution assures all people:
1st paragraph 4: Scientific and technological development will be at the service of people and will be carried out with respect for life and physical and mental integrity. The law will regulate the requirements, conditions and restrictions for its use in people, and must especially protect brain activity, as well as the information coming from it." .
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