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.
News source: The Washington Post
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