Internet giants deny giving information away to US

Criado em 21/08/13 13h52 e atualizado em 21/08/13 16h45
Por Sabrina Craide Edição:Aécio Amado / Nira Foster Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – During a public hearing in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday (August 20), representatives from large Internet businesses with operations in Brazil once more denied providing information from their Brazilian users to the United States government.

Marcel Leonardi, Senior Public Policy Counsel for Google in Brazil, said that the company is not involved in the Prism program or any other government surveillance program.

“Until we were contacted by the media, we at Google weren't even aware of the Prism program,” he said, in a reference to the top-secret electronic surveillance program run by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

According to Leonardi, Google does not provide access to its systems to any government including the United States, nor does it allow any technology deployments for surveillance purposes. “There is no such backdoor, side door, or trapdoor, no direct access to data,” he assured, adding that when legally required to do so, the company provides the information directly to the authorities.

Bruno Magrani, Head of Public Policy at Facebook Brazil, was also heard. He said that the company carefully reviews all requests for information and only accepts detailed requests.

Magrani claimed that the media coverage of the leaks has been inaccurate and misleading. “Facebook has never been involved in programs to give the United States or any other government direct access to our servers. We never received any broad requests or court orders from any government agency for information or large-scale data. And even if we had, we would have strongly objected,” Magrani said.

Alexandre Esper, Legal and Corporate Affairs Director at Microsoft Brazil, said that the company does not provide unrestricted access to their worldwide customers' data to any country, government, or organization, on any grounds. “Microsoft complies with the applicable legal requirements of its business locations and only provides data in strict compliance with legal procedures, on a case-by-case basis.”

Guilherme Ribenboim, Managing Director of Twitter Brazil, also said that he first heard of Prism through the media. He pointed out that Twitter does not request data from users, except for an e-mail account. “Respecting and protecting our users' voices is a key value for us at Twitter.”

Edition: Aécio Amado / Nira Foster
Translation: Mayra Borges / Olga Bardawil