By Saturday morning, it was not immediately clear whether the court would hear its argument or start fining the search engine $23,599 a day.
The Mountain View, California-based company said it already had complied with requests to finger individuals accused of using Orkut to spread child pornography and engage in hate speech. Orkut, which has 8 million users in Brazil, is an invitation-only service run by Google.
Google said it has handed over user information in 38 cases in which requests have been directed through the U.S., rather than its Brazilian marketing office.
At issue is whether information stored on computers in the U.S. should be subject to Brazilian or U.S. law. In this case, Brazilian authorities are said to be interested in Internet protocol addresses with time and date stamps that can help trace a specific user.
The search engine giant maintains it is open to data requests from foreign governments as long as they comply with U.S. laws and are issued within the country in which the information is stored.
But Judge Jose Marcos Lunardelli of the 17th District Federal Civil Court rejected that reasoning in late August, claiming “all the photographs and messages being investigated were published by Brazilians, through Internet connection in national territory.”
The Sao Paulo federal prosecutor’s office said Google was in clear defiance of the judge’s order and could be fined at any moment.