The use of the internet to publicize the waiting list of patients: balancing the principle of publicity and the right to intimacy

Abstract

This article examines the constitutionality of publishing patient waiting lists on public administration websites, addressing the normative tension between the constitutional principle of administrative publicity and the fundamental right to privacy and personal data protection. The research is guided by the following question: to what extent can active transparency in public healthcare management be implemented without violating personality rights and sensitive data safeguards? The central hypothesis argues that the disclosure of waiting lists is constitutionally legitimate when structured according to proportionality standards, data minimization, and anonymization techniques, allowing the simultaneous optimization of transparency and privacy through a balancing approach grounded in fundamental rights theory. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, using deductive reasoning and bibliographic and documentary analysis. As an empirical framework, it examines Municipal Law No. 6,954/2021 of Sertãozinho (Brazil) and the Brazilian Supreme Court’s judgment in Extraordinary Appeal No. 1.396.787, which declared partially unconstitutional the disclosure of identifiers such as CPF and National Health Card numbers. The findings suggest that the appropriate constitutional model does not require suppressing publicity, but rather redefining it through information governance practices consistent with the Access to Information Act and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law. The paper concludes that reconciling transparency and privacy depends on legal and technical parameters capable of preserving the essential core of both fundamental rights, contributing to a democratic, accountable, and digitally responsible public administration.