A judge in Brazil has ordered Google's local office to provide user data for Google's social networking site Orkut.
Brazilian prosecutors have accused some Orkut users of crimes such as racism, homophobia and child pornography, and federal judge Jose Lunardelli ruled last week (late Thursday) that within 15 days Google disclose the requested information, reports Reuters. The judge set a daily fine of more than $23,000 if Google does not reveal the requested information, including IP addresses.
Google officials in Brazil say clients' data is stored on a U.S. server, which is subject to U.S. laws, and so they cannot provide the data to Brazil; they also said the local unit is a marketing and sales office and has nothing to do with Orkut.
The judge said Google's local office had shown a complacent attitude toward "the serious crimes practiced on Orkut" and showed "profound disrespect for national sovereignty." Brazilians comprise 65 percent of Orkut's nearly 27 million users.
