Google's Korea Office Raided

SEOUL—Police raided Google Inc.'s South Korean offices Tuesday to probe potential violations of the country's telecommunication privacy law, in the latest move by authorities around the world to ratchet up scrutiny of the Internet search giant's privacy practices.

The National Police Agency said it is investigating whether the U.S. company collected and stored private information illegally while it prepared for the South Korean launch of its Street View mapping service, which provides panoramic views of streets for Internet search users.

The agency said Google collected information on unspecified users from Wi-Fi wireless network for about six months until May while sweeping through the streets in special vehicles used to assemble street photos for the service

Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870416490457542103325741751...

__________

Google's South Korean office raidedGoogle headquarters in Seoul raided by police investigating Street View data collection

Police in South Korea have raided Google's Seoul headquarters as part of an investigation into data collected by the company's Street View cars.

Police official Ahn Chang-soo said computers and hard drives had been seized in the raid by 19 Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) officers on the Google premises in the South Korean capital.

"[The police] have been investigating Google Korea on suspicion of unauthorised collection and storage of data on unspecified internet users from Wi-Fi networks," a statement released by the KNPA added.

A Google spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that the police have visited Google Korea in conjunction with their investigation around data collection by Street View cars. We will cooperate with the investigation and answer any questions they have."

A string of code in the production systems of Street View cars allowed Google to retrieve and store information about the networks' location, names and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses on wireless networks that were not password protected.

Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/10/google-street-view-seou...

___________