The Personal and Domestic Use Exemption is explicitly incorporated into Brazil's General Personal Data Protection Law (LGPD) as a factor limiting the law's applicability. This exemption excludes certain personal data processing activities from the scope of the LGPD.

Text of Relevant Provision

LGPD Article 4, item I states:

"This Law does not apply to the processing of personal data that: I – is done by a natural person exclusively for private and non-economic purposes;"

Original language: "I – é realizado por pessoa natural para fins exclusivamente particulares e não econômicos;"

Analysis of Provision

The Personal and Domestic Use Exemption in the LGPD is concisely defined in Article 4, item I. This provision establishes that the law does not apply to personal data processing "done by a natural person exclusively for private and non-economic purposes".

This exemption is based on two key criteria:

1. The data processing must be carried out by a natural person (an individual).
2. The processing must be exclusively for private and non-economic purposes.

The rationale behind this exemption is to balance the need for data protection with individuals' right to privacy in their personal affairs. Lawmakers typically include such exemptions to avoid overregulation of purely personal activities that pose minimal risk to others' privacy rights.

Implications

The Personal and Domestic Use Exemption has several implications for the application of the LGPD:

1. Personal activities: Individuals processing personal data for purely personal or household activities are exempt from LGPD compliance. Examples might include:
   • Maintaining a personal address book
   • Creating a family photo album
   • Keeping a personal diary or journal
2. Non-applicability to businesses: The exemption specifically applies to natural persons, meaning that businesses and organizations cannot claim this exemption, even for internal, non-commercial data processing.
3. Economic purpose limitation: Any data processing that has an economic purpose, even if conducted by an individual, would not fall under this exemption. For instance:
   • An individual selling customer data
   • A freelancer maintaining a client database for business purposes
4. Social media and online activities: While personal use of social media might initially seem to fall under this exemption, the public nature and potential economic implications of many social media activities could place them outside the exemption's scope.
5. Burden of proof: In cases of dispute, the individual claiming the exemption would likely need to demonstrate that their data processing activities are indeed exclusively private and non-economic.