Last week, in the midst of the news that Google was standardizing its data retention policy so that regular search data would be anonymized after 18 to 24 months, an Indian newspaper reported that local authorities had cut a deal with Google to speed up crackdowns on people who criticized revered Indian figures on its social networking site Orkut.
Google told 27b that the hotline established did not let authorities get users' IP addresses on request. Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing stayed on this story, expanding it to Orkut in Brazil, where similiar accusations were leveled.
Today, a Google spokesperson responded further to Xeni, which reads, in part:
Read the whole statement here.
