In light of the NSA spying on Brazil’s telecommunication
data, Brazilian leaders want to break away from the U.S. centric based Internet
system and create their own Internet space away from the prying eyes of outside
agencies. This would require many companies
such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others to host data centers to keep
local information within Brazil.
President Rousseff ordered Brazilian lawmakers to put a hold on all
other matters until they vote on whether they will require companies to do this
or not.
Google is arguing against this move because it greatly
hinder growth into the Brazilian market as a result of the high costs for
building the infrastructure. However, not agreeing to this new law would end in
a 10% sales cut from Brazil, which happens to be the third largest Android
market in the world. The US Chamber of
Commerce told Brazil that moving a data center to Brazil would have several
negative outcomes for the country, being a loss of competitiveness worldwide,
increase in costs of working with these companies and make their citizens more
prone to hacking. Google’s current security strategy of spreading data out over
several centers would be irrelevant in Brazil if they opened up a data center making
their users less secure leaving them vulnerable to hackers.
The same outrage has also been seen in the European Union as
they are currently attempting to revamp their online privacy rules for
violations. The EU is currently putting
a lot of the blame on companies such as Google and Facebook for tracking their
citizen’s private information then sending it to other countries outside the
region. The EU could possibly be seeking
fines for damages in the $100 to $200 million dollar range.
Brazil’s plan to attempt to keep US spies out of its new
network is to lay fiber optic cable underwater straight to Europe as well as
to connect themselves to other South American companies through their own
network. Brazil is one of the largest
international markets for many online based companies so if this law follows
through and several other countries take after Brazil, this would take a heavy
toll on companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, permanently changing how
internet companies are started as well as how the internet is used in general.
Brazil is supposed to voting on this law today or tomorrow
so I will update news in the comments section or if anyone beats me to it feel free
to comment. I am interested in thoughts
on the impact of this happening and of course any and all updates on the matter
concerning these countries as well as others not mentioned.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/nsa-spying-allegations-put-google-on-hot-seat-in-brazil.html
This is actually a very interesting topic. Until your Blog, I really did not realize what was going on. I looked it up on my internet browser and a lot of articles and other Blogs came up. In a way I can understand Brazil and other countries wanting to create their own secure connections. Information is power and I suppose no one entity should hold all the cards. But unfortunately, even if Brazil does lay the fiber optic cables and creates new connections to bypass the NSA, it will only be a patch. The internet sites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter will find new ways to generate profits to offset any additional structural costs they may incur for storing data in those countries and the NSA will more than likely find another way to hack into the new Brazilian system if that is truly what they want to do.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. The NSA will always find a way to get the information they want and even though Google, Facebook will take revenue cuts they will still be making a ton of money.
DeleteTyler, I found your posting to be very interesting. I think that Brazil would experience much change within its society if this conversion were to take place. Im not 100% sure on if I support the change, but I do know that the impact will be tremendous.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that it will have a huge impact but we all know the NSA will find a way around all of this.
DeleteVery interesting blog. Somehow I would be surprised if this law goes into place in Brazil. So many businesses worldwide use Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools. Maybe this is a US-centric view, but much of the internet goes through our country and I cannot imagine a country simply bypassing us. If this law does go into effect, I would expect many people to find ways to still utilize American websites, probably through proxies and VPNs.
ReplyDeleteYah that is an interesting point there. Companies such as Facebook and Twitter are huge marketing tools and they would be hurting by taking them away from their internet.
DeleteIt is very interesting that Brazil is trying to create its own internet space for facebook and google. I wonder if the US does use either of these sites to spy on other countries as the EU has accused them of. Even if these countries have their own internet space one has to wonder how they will use it, for good or bad.
ReplyDeleteYah at this point there is no telling what they use those sites for. Nor do I think we will actually know. So only time will tell I guess.
DeleteI also think that this is a good idea for Brazil but they need to realize that no matter how secure they feel the new network will be that it could never be fully secure. No network will ever be and they will always become more vulnerable to hackers and cyber criminals as technology advances.
ReplyDeleteVery true, and if there is one point I have learned through our blogs being about internet privacy is that no matter how safe or private you think something is, it is never fully secure.
DeleteThe Brazilian government certainly have the right to require foreign companies to build local data centers so as to minimize the threat of foreign countries spying on them or stealing stealing their intellectual information. I don’t really think this move would hurt Facebook, Google or Twitter that much but I can see why the would rather stay in a centralized and native location. Every country deserves its anonymity although I’m sure the NSA would differ with me on the stance.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am sure the NSA would differ with you also but at the same time I see your point. They should have the right to do that if they want to.
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