Google's data-protection jam transcends Brazil

Google once again finds itself torn between its moral responsibility to help law enforcement fight crime and its commitment to protect the privacy of users. The latest standoff is with the government of Brazil.

Brazilian prosecutors have been investigating Google's wildly popular Orkut social-networking site, on which some users are allegedly engaging in child pornography and racism. In the latest legal preceding Thursday, a Brazilian judge gave Google Brazil 15 days to hand over information--including Internet Protocol addresses--on those accused of such crimes, or else face a daily fine of more than $23,000 a day for each individual case.

Google has so far refused to hand over anything, arguing that it's the U.S. company, not the Brazilian subsidiary, that hosts the servers and the relevant data. Bloggers point out that the issue has the potential to set precedent far beyond the Brazilian borders.

Blog community response:

"Expect the situation to come to a head--Google prides itself on its refusal to disclose user information, both on principle and because Google can't afford the fallout of ever breaching privacy for its millions of users...As the deadline nears, the judge is charging Google over $23,000 per nondisclosed profile per day. The International Herald Tribune reports the total fine as $23 million daily. In two weeks, that turns into money worth fighting for."
--ValleyWag

"We can sympathize with Google here. They're being tarred for running a site that promotes and condones illegal activity, which it does not. It runs a social networking site that allows users a measure of freedom to promote themselves and communicate with others, with some unfortunate consequences. We're not saying we welcome kiddie porn, violence and discrimination--quite the opposite. But saying that Orkut is morally responsible for crimes carried out by its users is like saying MySpace is responsible for atrocious spelling, un-viewable layouts and photos of teenagers doing dumb things to themselves (well, maybe they're on the hook for the layouts)."
--searchviews

"I'm not sure where I stand on this one, as there are definitely two sides to this. Sure, the data is only being requested for those accused of crimes and could help put away criminals. On the other hand, from a legal perspective (though I'm no lawyer), if Google complies with one case like this, the precedent will be set for governments far and wide."
--Drew Meyers Insights