Disappearance of Inai would violate personal data: Commissioner Del Río

Mexico City., In response to the reform initiative that seeks to eliminate the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), Commissioner Julieta del Río Venegas asserted that Mexico has the right to have autonomous organizations “that defend citizens’ information against any violation of their personal data.”

At the First International Congress on Personal Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence, he explained that the Inai and the country “face great challenges due to the advance of new technologies and misinformation,” but also due to the proposal “that seeks to eliminate the institute and local organizations.” Given this, he said, the question arises: “Who is going to take care of everyone’s personal data? The initiative does not say so anywhere.”

She stressed that another issue that should not be overlooked is what will happen with the National Transparency Platform, “a system managed by the Inai that allows people to consult public information, request it or complain about incomplete or negative responses. Who will manage it, who will be responsible for the more than 14 billion records it has?” the commissioner asked.

At the conference, organized by the Institute for Access to Public Information for the State of Guanajuato, Del Río Venegas said that with the initiative “they are going to restrict our freedoms and they are going to have our personal data. That is the challenge we have, to get involved and fight for these guarantor organizations and defend that no one protects our personal data other than the guarantor organizations, with autonomy.”

He also recalled that thanks to the Inai, “the creation of the National Registry of Mobile Telephone Users (Panaut) did not prosper, which sought to collect sensitive information from mobile telephone users as a condition for them to keep their lines active. This registry forced users to allow the registration of their biometric data.”