Google and other internet service providers "turned over confidential user information" to Primeira Liga side Benfica that "may help it identify anonymous bloggers who have written about allegations of wrongdoing" against the club, according to Tariq Panja of the N.Y. TIMES. The information was turned over as part of a lawsuit Lisbon-based Benfica filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in California "as part of an effort to stop the bloggers." Benfica has been "battling a tide of leaked information for much of the past year." The leaks have been "drip-fed onto a specially created website" since December, "producing sensational headlines and leading to a crisis" for the club. Benfica was "unable to stop the leaks through Portugal's legal system." So the club turned in April to California's courts. It issued subpoenas to Google and "a handful of other companies" that own the platforms used by the bloggers. The efforts have "paid off." A Benfica spokesperson said, "We only confirm that we made agreements with those digital platforms." In a statement, Google said that it "complied with the legal process." The owner of the Artista do Dia blog is "among those whose user identity has very likely been passed on to Benfica by Google" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/23).
