## Facts

- Joanice Amaral Botelho was formerly employed by Banco do Brasil S.A., a mixed-capital company with partial state ownership.
- After Botelho’s layoff, she later sought to be readmitted to the bank.
- Banco do Brasil rehired many former employees, but did not reinstate Botelho.
- Botelho requested access to information in her “ficha funcional” (personnel/employment record) kept by the bank.
- The bank refused to provide the requested information.
- Botelho filed a constitutional writ of *habeas data* to obtain access to (and, if necessary, correct) information about herself contained in the bank’s records.
- The trial court denied the writ.
- The intermediate appellate court reversed and ordered Banco do Brasil to disclose the personnel record.
- Banco do Brasil filed an extraordinary appeal (RE 165.304/MG) to the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), contending that *habeas data* was unavailable because the employment relationship was private in nature and the bank was not a proper respondent.

## Issues

1. Whether Banco do Brasil, when acting as a market participant in an employment relationship, has passive standing to respond to a *habeas data* petition under Article 5, LXXII, “a” of the Brazilian Constitution.
2. Whether an internal employee personnel file is a “record or database of a governmental entity” or a record “of a public character” within the meaning of Article 5, LXXII, “a.”

## Decision

- The STF (Plenary), in a unanimous decision, heard the extraordinary appeal and granted it.
- The STF reversed the appellate decision that had granted the writ and denied Botelho’s *habeas data* request.
- The Court held Banco do Brasil lacked passive standing in this *habeas data* action because, in the challenged conduct, it was not acting as a governmental entity but as an enterprise engaged in economic activity (referencing Article 173, § 1º, original text).
- The Court further held the employee personnel file was not a record “of a public character” for *habeas data* purposes, because it was not a record intended for third-party use.

## Legal Principles

- Under Article 5, LXXII, “a” of the Brazilian Constitution, *habeas data* is available to ensure access to information about the petitioner contained in records or databases of governmental entities or in records of a public character.
- A mixed-capital, state-influenced enterprise does not automatically qualify as a governmental entity for *habeas data*; when it operates in economic activity, it is treated under a private-law regime (Constitution, Article 173, § 1º, original text).
- Records “of a public character” are those that, by their nature, are used or may be used by third parties or otherwise function as public-facing registries; an internal personnel file does not meet that standard.
- When the respondent is neither a governmental entity nor the custodian of a public-character database, the *habeas data* petition fails for lack of passive standing.

## Conclusion

In **Bank of Brazil v. Joanice Amaral Botelho, RE-165304 (2000)**, the STF held that *habeas data* could not be used to compel Banco do Brasil to disclose a former employee’s personnel record because, in the employment setting at issue, the bank acted as a private economic enterprise rather than a governmental entity, and the personnel file was not a record of a public character under Article 5, LXXII, “a” of the Constitution.
