Brazil initiates measures against cyber-spying
September 15, 2013, 5:53 am

Rousseff is pushing new legislation that would seek to force Google, Facebook and other internet companies to store locally gathered data inside Brazil [Getty Images]

“We have established that we will hold a meeting in Brasilia before the end of the year to intensify our complementarity in the matter of cyber defense,” Argentine defense minister Agustin Rossi said after talks with his Brazilian counterpart.

Brazil also announced that it would host a bilateral cyber security meet later this year to discuss measures to prevent such spying which President Dilma Rousseff claimed was “espionage offensive to human rights, Brazil’s sovereignty and economic interests.”

“We need to reflect on how we cooperate to face these new forms of attack,” Brazil’s defense minister, Celso Amorim, said at a conference in Buenos Aires.

The Brazilian Senate is probing claims the NSA monitored emails and intercepted phone calls of President Dilma Rousseff and several of her top aides.

“Starting in 2014 Brazil will provide cyber warfare training to Argentine officers. ??The combined efforts will allow Brazil and Argentina to “diminish situations of vulnerability,” Rossi said.

Rousseff is pushing new legislation that would seek to force Google, Facebook and other internet companies to store locally gathered data inside Brazil.

The new legislation when it takes effect would force foreign-based internet companies to maintain data centres inside Brazil that would then be governed by Brazilian privacy laws, officials said.

Rousseff has indicated that she is considering urging other countries to take similar measures against US prying when she speaks at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, a senior Brazilian official said.

“This would be a turning point for these companies,” the official said, naming Facebook, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp as examples, although they would not be the only companies affected. “If you want to work here, you will have to obey our rules.”

Brazilian lawmaker Alessandro Molon has already met Rousseff to discuss the proposed law, following which the President’s office filed a motion in Wednesday’s edition of the government’s official gazette that seeks to force Congress to vote on the new bill in the next 45 days.

Molon has been pushing Congress since 2012 to pass a bill known as the “Internet Constitution.” The law would establish Brazil’s first legal framework for users’ rights online, and among other requirements would force social media companies to delete users’ data once they close their profiles.

Reports aired by on the “Fantastico” news show broadcast by Brazil’s Globo Television revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is snooping on conversations of the Brazilian President, including emails and telephone calls as well as communications of its oil giant Petrobras.

Source: Agencies