Google raided by South Korea over privacy
SOUTH Korean police said they raided Google’s Seoul office yesterday on suspicion that the internet giant had illegally collected data on users.
Google has been preparing since late last year to launch its Street View service in the country and the data collection was related to the launch, police said.
The probe in one of Asia’s most wired countries came as a fresh setback to Google, which already faces investigation over Street View by the US Federal Trade Commission, a variety of probes overseas and class action lawsuits.
The Korean National Police Agency said: “We have been investigating Google Korea on suspicion of unauthorised collection and storage of data on unspecified internet users from wi-fi networks”.
Google has said the data was accidentally collected and has grounded its Street View cars globally.
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world.