A Brazilian judge had threatened to levy fines of up to $23,000
a day on Google if it did not comply with its requests. Google
argued that the data was not subject to Brazilian law because it
was stored on servers in the US.
Brazilian authorities want to be able to identify users of the
social networking service who are responsible for posts and
material connected with racism, homophobia and child
pornography.
Google said that it has already complied with requests for
information relating to 26 cases and that it has information stored
relating to 70 cases that it thinks may be the subjects of future
court orders.
"It is and always has been our intention to be as cooperative in
the investigation and prosecution of crimes as we possibly can,
while being careful to balance the interests of our users and the
request from the authorities," said a statement released by
Google.
The authorities have identified comments and material that could
result in prosecution under Brazil's hate speech laws. They are
seeking internet address information which can help identify what
internet connection was used to post comments and when. They could
also seek account information which would give email address and
contact details of account holders.
The handing over of search engine and internet publishing
details is highly controversial, particularly in the international
context. Yahoo has admitted that it passed on details that were
used by Chinese authorities to identify and convict a Chinese
dissident journalist it accused of leaking state secrets, prompting
outcry from human rights activists.
