Brazil to closely assess US vow to limit NSA spying

Brazil said today it would closely study US President Barack Obama's pledge to curtail his National Security Agency's espionage activities and halt spy taps on friendly foreign leaders.
"It is a first step. The Brazilian government will monitor with extreme attention the practical ramifications of the (Obama's) speech," said presidential spokesman Thomas Traumann, whose country was the target of massive NSA electronic surveillance.
The statement was Brasilia's first reaction to Obama's speech Friday in which he pledged that the NSA will not routinely spy on leaders of Washington's closest allies, following global outrage at disclosures of massive US electronic eavesdropping.

In his long-awaited speech, the American leader said he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders and proposed new protections for foreigners caught in US data mining.
Brazil has been infuriated by disclosures that the NSA snooped on Brazilian government communications, those of state-run energy giant Petrobras, as well as phone call data and emails of millions of Brazilians.
Those disclosures, based on documents provided by fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, prompted President Dilma Rousseff to reprimand the United States at the UN General Assembly session in September and to cancel a planned state visit to Washington.

Rousseff also slammed Washington over allegations that the NSA tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone calls.

Brazil and Germany sponsored a joint resolution on the protection of individual liberties at the UN General Assembly's human rights panel in New York.
Brazil is also to host an international conference on Internet governance in Sao Paulo in April.