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RIO DE JANEIRO: Internet giant Google on Wednesday handed over data
stored by 3,261 suspected pedophile users on its Orkut social
networking site to Brazil’s congressional committee, local media
reported.
The handover of the data, which mainly comprise
of pictures and photo albums stored on Orkut, one of the most
popular sites in Brazil, was part of an initiative by the Brazilian
authorities to battle pedophilia crimes on the web.
Brazil’s Federal Police will track the
suspected profile holders and launch an official investigation if
necessary.
Senator Magno Malta, president of the
congressional committee, said that the Congress would ask for the
disclosure of the telephone records of the suspect Orkut profile
holders on Thursday, according to local media reports.
National Cyber Crime Center said last month that
90 percent of the 56,000 pedophilia allegations received in the past
two years were related to Orkut.
According to Senator Demostenes Torres, another
member of the committee, it was the first time that Google released
secret information from its database to authorities.
“Over the past two years, there have been
50,000 pedophilia reports. Google initially refused to release it,
arguing that it was a question of privacy especially because the
data was hosted in California,” said Torres.
-- Xinhua
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