Google bends to Brazilian data request

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 05 September 2006 20:50

Your IT - Home IT

Google, renowned for taking on the US Justice Department early this year over the integrity of its user data, has agreed to hand over a small portion of its data to Brazilian authorities under threat of hefty fines and possibly closure of its local office.

The data relates to information posted on the Orkut social networking site in Brazil, which involves pornography, pedophilia, racism and other criminal activities. The Brazilian federal prosecutor wants data that can help identify the perpertrators of the criminal postings.

Google, which was facing fines of US$23,000 a day plus a further US$62 million and possible closure of its Brazilian office, finally relented when it was clear that the Brazilian courts meant business.

Orkut has more than 15 million users and is Brazil's most popular social networking site.

Google maintains that the Orkut case is different from the US Department of Justice case because it only involves the transfer of a small specialized segment of its data as opposed to the broad random sampling demanded by the US DOJ.