Brazil wants Google, Facebook to store data locally

Brazil will press tech giants such as Google and Facebook to store Internet data pertaining to its citizens locally due to allegations of US spying, according to a regulator.

"Data centers are in various parts of the world. We do not want all of them to be based in Brazil, but yes we do want data storage centers here," Virgilio Almeida, the coordinator of the Internet oversight committee in Brazil (CGI), said Monday.

"Naturally this can occur with tax incentives, purchase policies, but this is something that the government wants to keep in the country."

CGI officials discussed the issue with President Dilma Rousseff, according to press reports, amid growing government concern over allegations of widespread US cyber-spying in Brazil.

Almeida said Brazil, with its population of more than 200 million people, is one of the main markets for information technology and social media networks.

The Globo newspaper, citing documents provided by fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, recently reported that Washington's National Security Agency monitored Rousseff's communications with her aides and snooped on state-run energy giant Petrobras.

Rousseff discussed the spying row in a telephone conversation with her US counterpart Barack Obama Monday and she was to announce Tuesday whether she will go ahead with a state visit to Washington scheduled for next month.