Deputy questions “harmful points” of the Celular Seguro program

Federal deputy Captain Alden (PL-BA) questioned this Thursday (28) two “harmful points” of the Celular Seguro program that was launched by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP), last week, with the aim of rendering devices that are stolen or stolen with just a few commands from the owner.

Ministry data shows that around 579,883 cell phones have already been registered and more than 4,000 stolen or stolen devices have been blocked in just one week of operation. According to the MJSP, the purpose of the action is to guarantee greater security for citizens who have their cell phone stolen, by blocking banking applications and preserving personal data present on the smartphone.

According to Captain Alden, the Federal Government continues with the same strategy it used throughout 2023, which is to give a friendly guise to actions harmful to citizens with hidden “surprises”. The Bahian military officer used as an example the series of projects sent by the National Executive Branch that contained texts with questionable sections, the so-called “jabutis”.

“The Lula misgovernment wants to monitor every Brazilian citizen even more with the excuse of preserving their security in case their cell phone is stolen. In theory, the application is good, but in practice it follows the same modus operandi as the Left, that is, the State wants greater control over citizens”, said Alden.

According to the parliamentarian, the program has questionable points, in the Terms of “Use and Privacy Policy of the Safe Cellular Program” and pointed out at least two that he considers harmful to those who download the application:

1. “The Ministry of Justice and Public Security reserves the right to modify or discontinue the Application and the web platform at any time, especially to adapt them to developments in the Secure Cellular Service of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, whether by making new functionalities, whether by deleting or modifying those that already exist. Any changes and/or updates to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice will come into force from the date of their publication on the Application and on the web platform, and must be fully observed by Users.”
2. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security, as Controller, reserves the right to modify, at any time, in the Application and on the web platform, these standards, especially to adapt them to developments in the Secure Cellular Service of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, either by making new features available or by suppressing or modifying existing ones.”

Captain Alden identified that in both excerpts it is clear that there is the phrase “right to modify”, but these modifications are not specified and do not describe that the user will be alerted when the changes occur. “You download an application with certain features and then discover that it is very different from what you imagined”, says Alden.

Alden reported that he sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security demanding more clarification about the “Secure Cell Phone”, as the points that he considers atypical require detailing. “I am in favor of measures that guarantee the security of citizens’ banking data and information on their smartphones, but this can be done more rigorously by preventing robberies, for example”, comments Alden.

For the deputy, the Lula administration once again takes the focus off the problem and tries to deal with the issue of Public Security in the wrong way. The Bahian military officer recalls that the Federal Government cut R$708 million from the Public Security budget from the budget scheduled for 2024.

“Try to treat the symptom and not the disease! This is what we see in Lula’s misgovernment. This is the same person who argued that the young man steals a cell phone to ‘have a beer’. Now with a palliative measure he is trying to deceive public opinion. Do people want to block their stolen cell phone or do they actually not want to be robbed? This answer is obvious”, points out Alden.