Google to give data to Brazilian court

Xinhua

Google Inc., which refused in the past year to hand over user search data to U.S. authorities, has agreed to comply with a Brazilian court’s orders to turn over data about racism, pedophilia and homophobia, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The difference, Google says, is scale and purpose, said the report.

The Justice Department wanted Google’s entire search index, billions of pages and two months’ worth of queries, for a broad civil case. Brazil, by contrast, is looking for information in specific cases involving Google’s social networking site, Orkut, said the company.

“What they’re asking for is not billions of pages,” said Nicole Wong, Google associate general counsel. “In most cases, it’s relatively discrete — small and narrow.”

Google released a statement Friday saying it was complying with the Brazilian court orders following a ruling Thursday by a Brazilian judge that threatened Google with a fine of 23,000 U.S. dollars a day for noncompliance.

The Brazilian authorities are particularly interested in Internet protocol addresses with time and date stamps that can help trace a specific user. Registration information Google could provide includes names and e-mail addresses.