[Infowarrior] - Google to Give Data To Brazilian Court

[Richard Forno]

Google to Give Data To Brazilian Court
Request Differs From U.S.'s, It Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090100
608_pf.html

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 2, 2006; D03

Google Inc., which refused in the past year to hand over user search data to
U.S. authorities fighting children's access to pornography, said yesterday
that it was complying with a Brazilian court's orders to turn over data that
could help identify users accused of taking part in online communities that
encourage racism, pedophilia and homophobia.

The difference, it says, is scale and purpose.

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.

"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 yesterday 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 a day for noncompliance.

According to Google, the judge mistakenly thought the company was resisting
because court orders had been sent to Google's Brazilian subsidiary, Google
Brazil, instead of to Google Inc. headquarters in the United States. So far,
has complied with 26 court orders that have been redirected to Google Inc.,
Wong said. Google has stored information relating to at least 70 more cases
in anticipation of a court order, she said.

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.

Orkut pulls objectionable words and pictures from user sites, but Google
stores content it feels could be useful in a lawsuit. Orkut is especially
popular in Brazil, which accounts for 75 percent of its 17 million users.

Legal and privacy experts said that Google had no choice but to comply with
the court order. "From the law enforcement perspective, if the records are
in the possession of the business, the business can be compelled to produce
them," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based
Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The larger point, civil libertarians said, is that as long as Internet
companies retain data that can identify people, which they use for marketing
purposes, they will become targets of law enforcement.

That can raise dilemmas for the companies, they said.

"Suppose the Chinese government sought the identities of people who visited
dissident Web sites? Or the Iranian regime wanted to identify those who
posted material critical of Islam? " said David Sobel, senior counsel for
the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Washington.

Last year, Yahoo Inc. confirmed that it had given Chinese authorities
information later used to convict a Chinese journalist imprisoned for
leaking state secrets.

"It's almost a defining moment for the industry," Rotenberg said. "They need
to decide if they want to become a one-stop shop for government
prosecutors."

European and Latin American laws permit prosecution for hate speech -- an
approach the U.S. Constitution does not allow, though hate crimes can be
prosecuted.

Google, in its statement, said "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."

Research assistant Alice Crites contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company