Mexican Supreme Court of Justice Invalidates Key Provision in Federal Tax Code That Authorized the Disclosure of PII by Federal Tax Agency

The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice ruled to invalidate the last paragraph of Article 17-F of the Mexican Federal Tax Code, which allowed requests be made to the Mexican Tax Administration Service (Servicio de Administración Tributaria) to verify and authenticate electronic signature certificates and to disclose to any third party personal identifiable information (PII) to verify the identity of users of electronic signatures, including biometric information, without prior consent by users.

The Mexican Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Information (Instituto Nacional de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales) and a parliamentary minority challenged the constitutional validity of the provision found in Article 17-F. The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice unanimously agreed that the legal provision violates an individual’s right to determine how their PII is accessed and used and violates an individual’s right to privacy and protection of PII given that the provision in Article 17-F does not require consent to use personal information nor is a lawful legal purpose justified.