By: Leonardo Neri

ViaQuatro, the concessionaire responsible for managing Line 4 – Yellow of the São Paulo Metro, was ordered to pay R$100,000 for collecting facial recognition data from users without their consent. The order also prohibits the use of the system implemented since 2018, which captures facial expressions of Metro users in front of advertisements.

The Public Civil Action that led to the conviction was proposed by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC), which based the request on the existence of a violation of basic consumer rights, especially regarding the need for consent to collect their data and information about what will be done with them.

IDEC also highlights the seriousness of the fact that facial recognition was not even used to improve transport services, which is ViaQuatro's core business, but rather to analyze people's emotions based on advertisements, which could even be commercialized.

According to IDEC, the capture was carried out using almost imperceptible cameras, which were camouflaged in the advertising totems.

Judge Patrícia Martins Conceição, who judged the Public Civil Action, highlights in her ruling the company's lack of transparency, which did not even inform about the capture of expressions from users.

Although the collection has already been prevented since September 2018, through the granting of an injunction, the sentence of last Friday, the 7th, confirmed the terms of the injunction, adding to the sentence the compensation for collective moral damages, in the amount of R$ 100 thousand, which will be allocated to the Diffuse Rights Defense Fund (FDD).