Federal prosecutors in Brazil are threatening to shut down Google's operations in the country after the company refused to hand over information requested by the government. Brazil's Public Attorney's
Office filed a lawsuit against the Web search giant demanding information about users of its social network, Orkut, which is quite popular there. The prosecutors say they want the information in order
to crack down on child pornographers and others who have used the site for illegal activities. The request is similar to the one lodged by the U.S. government earlier in the year, when it requested
search data from Google for a child-pornography case. Because data about Orkut's members is stored on its servers in the U.S., Google said it would only cooperate with the Brazilian government under
the terms of U.S. law. Prosecutors say they have asked Google more than 30 times, and now claim they have no recourse but to shut down the company's Brazilian operations. Google said it has
satisfactorily responded to more than 15 of those requests, but would not say whether it provided all of the details requested.
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