Angered by reports that the U.S. National Security Agency monitored emails, phone calls and other communications of Brazilians with secret Internet surveillance programs, Rousseff's government wants to force foreign-based Internet companies to maintain data centers inside Brazil, subject to Brazilian privacy laws.
Internet companies operating in Brazil are currently free to put data centers wherever they like. Facebook Inc, for example, stores its global data in the United States and a new complex in Sweden.
Business lobbies have written to lawmakers warning that the in-country data storage requirements could exclude Brazilian Internet users from cloud data storage services, shut off Brazil from the seamless flow of global information and hinder its hopes of becoming a regional IT and data center hub.
One lawmaker who met with Harbath, former Rio de Janeiro Governor Antony Garotinho, said the requirement for local data centers must be dropped.
"I'm against it. How are you going to store in Brazil information on Brazilians that is part of a worldwide network? It's kind of hard and I think it's unlikely to happen."
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paulo Prada and Doina Chiacu)
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