Judge Jose Marcos Lunardelli of the 17th District Federal Civil Court gave Google Brazil 15 days to comply with his order or face fines of $23,599 per day.
In an effort to comply with the court to avoid fines, Google announced it would surrender data on some Orkut users that are the target of a law enforcement probe.
“What they’re asking for is not billions of pages,” Nicole Wong, Google’s associate general counsel, told The Washington Post. “In most cases, it’s relatively discrete — small and narrow.”
Federal prosecutors in Brazil filed a lawsuit in August seeking information about Orkut users who allegedly distributed child pornography through the service. Orkut has more than 20 million registered users in Brazil. Lunardelli issued his order after prosecutors said Google ignored their initial requests for information.
Google fired back in an email, saying that Lunardelli’s order is “misdirected” because Google’s office in Brazil functions as a satellite sales office and is totally separate from Orkut, which is operated from the main Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. The company said its office in Brazil does not maintain any information on Orkut or its users.
“The Brazilian authorities are particularly interested in Internet protocol addresses with time and date stamps that can help trace a specific user,” the Washington Post reported. “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.”
Google claims it has complied with all requests for information, and that to be issued a fine implies that there are court orders that Google Brazil must be held in contempt prior to the court’s issuing of fines.
“There has not been a single case that has not been responded to,” the search giant said in a statement. “Child pornography is disgusting and illegal and we will not tolerate such content on Orkut. The decision did not specify which orders we have allegedly not complied with.”
According to Google, it has received requests for information from the Brazilian federal court addressed to its headquarters in the U.S. in the past. The company has been cooperative, responding to more than 20 criminal court orders.
“We have already produced data in response to many criminal court orders issued by Brazilian courts that are addressed to Google Inc. and served on its counsel in Brazil, including numerous orders requesting data about persons being investigated for alleged distribution of child pornography,” Google said in the statement.