O limite constitucional da interceptação telefônica

Abstract

This study is aimed at examining the legal treatment given to the confidentiality of telephone communications under the Brazilian law, as well as analyzing the situations where this secrecy can be violated. Federal Law 9.296/96, which brought into effect the provisions of Article 5, XII, of the Federal Constitution, allows telephone interceptions, if performed with the objective of achieving evidences in criminal investigations or prosecutions, given that the criteria established by the legislation are met. The exception to the rule of inviolability of the confidentiality of telephone communications unquestionably diminishes the essential value of individual constitutional rights and guarantees, such as privacy and intimacy, as it allows, in legal cases, access to the private data of the individual, in order to serve as evidence in a criminal prosecution. However, such diminishing of value of individual rights and guarantees under the Constitution has its own limit, which is laid down in the Federal Constitution itself, considering the principle of human dignity provided by it as being a fundamental precept. The State power, considering the social interest in exceptional situations, ultimately diminishes the value of certain individual rights and guarantees for the protection of society and legal interests governed by the said criminal provision, however, such diminishing of importance is limited by the human dignity, which is a fundamental principle that, according to our current legal system, can never be suppressed