Google, Korea Raided By Police
South Korean police have raided Google’s Seoul office, the latest in a series of legal challenges the company is facing because of data collected by its controversial fleet of “Street View” cars.
Google has been preparing since late last year to launch its “Street View” service in South Korea, 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 37 US states as well as an informal investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission, and a variety of probes overseas and class action lawsuits.
Google confirmed in an emailed statement that South Korean police visited the company’s office in conjunction with their investigation around data collection by Street View cars. It said the company would cooperate with the investigation.
Google’s Street View cars are well known for crisscrossing the globe and taking panoramic pictures of the city streets, which the company displays in its online Maps product.
In May, Google revealed that the cars also accidentally collected computer users’ personal information transmitted over unsecured wireless networks due to an experimental piece of computer code mistakenly used by the car’s equipment.
“(The police) have been investigating Google Korea LLC on suspicion of unauthorised collection and storage of data on unspecified internet users from Wi-Fi networks,” the Korean National Police Agency said in a statement.
The police inspected the Google Street view cars and asked questions of staffers at Google’s office during the unexpected visit.
Security experts have said the data picked up by Google could include people’s email messages and passwords, although Google has said that the United Kingdom’s data protection authorities recently concluded that no “meaningful personal information” was collected by the cars.
Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, does not break out what portion of its nearly $24 billion in annual revenue comes from South Korea.
The company currently operates its flagship internet search service in South Korea, as well as other services like its Android smartphone software.