A Brazilian judge had threatened to levy fines of up to $23,000 a day on Google if it did not comply with its requests. Google argued that the data was not subject to Brazilian law because it was stored on servers in the US.
Brazilian authorities want to be able to identify users of the social networking service who are responsible for posts and material connected with racism, homophobia and child pornography.
Google said that it has already complied with requests for information relating to 26 cases and that it has information stored relating to 70 cases that it thinks may be the subjects of future court orders.
"It is and always has been our intention to be as cooperative in the investigation and prosecution of crimes as we possibly can, while being careful to balance the interests of our users and the request from the authorities," said a statement released by Google.
The authorities have identified comments and material that could result in prosecution under Brazil's hate speech laws. They are seeking internet address information which can help identify what internet connection was used to post comments and when. They could also seek account information which would give email address and contact details of account holders.
The handing over of search engine and internet publishing details is highly controversial, particularly in the international context. Yahoo has admitted that it passed on details that were used by Chinese authorities to identify and convict a Chinese dissident journalist it accused of leaking state secrets, prompting outcry from human rights activists.
