Google, Facebook Considering Brazil's Spy-Proof Link to Europe

Google and Facebook are among companies interested in using a $250 million submarine cable that will link Brazil directly to Europe as part of the South American country’s attempts to avoid US electronic espionage, according to Brazilian Communications Minister Andre Figueiredo. The cable is expected to be operational in late 2017 and “should be funded by the commercialization of its traffic," Figueiredo said. State-owned Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras SA, known as Telebras, “is already marketing the cable to the European Union and companies such as Google and Facebook, which have shown interest in it." Brazil announced the construction of the link in 2015 as part of its push to increase phone and Internet security in the aftermath of the 2013 revelations that the US National Security Agency had monitored President Dilma Rousseff’s communications.