Google Faces Brazil Probe Over Orkut

Brazilian state prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro opened a formal investigation into U.S. Internet company Google over pedophilia, defamation and false identity on its social networking site Orkut, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Rio de Janeiro state prosecutor's office will give Google 120 days to implement a system that stores Internet protocol addresses, making it easier for authorities to track down images and pages that could be considered as complicit to a crime, Estado said. "These mechanisms already exist, but Google only stores user information for 30 days," Estado quoted Rodrigo Mascarenhas, a top prosecutor, as saying. "It is a problem the police face when they investigate a crime."

Messages left for a Sao Paulo-based Google spokesman seeking a comment on the Estado story were not immediately returned. The principal target of the measure is crimes of pedophilia, he added. Google must also fund a media campaign to promote "responsible use of the Internet," Estado reported the prosecution saying.