Although several countries are investigating such allegations against Google, South Korea is the first one to officially notify the company. The Korean Police Department will now refer the case to prosecutors, who will decide whether to formally charge the search engine giant, says the Associated Press.
The country’s Cyber Terror Response Center claimed that their investigation revealed that Google violated privacy of telecommunications and protecting information about locations, had got their hands at private e-mails and other electronic communications of around 600,000 of Koreans while trying to collect data for its mapping services called “Street View”.
In May of last year, Google admitted that its Wi-Fi data collection devices, fitted to the top of its Street View vehicles, had inadvertently been accumulating data transferred over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Google temporarily grounded its Street View cars, and hired an outside firm to conduct a review of the data collection, which could not determine whether personal information was collected.
Nevertheless, the search engine giant has been accused of accumulating personal information from unsecured wireless networks as its Street View service took photos of South Korean neighborhoods between October 2009 and May 2010. The case kicked off last August when South Korean police raided the local offices of Google in an attempt to determine whether the company had violated local laws.
After analyzing the hard drives seized during the raid, South Korean police discovered that the company had violated two laws — one concerning privacy over telecommunications networks and another designed to protect information about physical locations, Reuters reported. If charged, Google would face fines of up to 50 million won ($44,800) and 30 million won ($26,900), respectively, for breaking the two laws, added Reuters.
In response to the latest news out of Korea, Google released the following communiqué, which was sent to CNET:
“As we have repeatedly acknowledged before that this was a mistake, and we are profoundly sorry for having inadvertently collected payload data from unencrypted networks. As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities. While we have repeatedly acknowledged that this was a mistake, we believe Google did nothing illegal in Korea, and we are working with the relevant authorities to respond to their questions and concerns. We have been cooperating with the Korean Communications Commission and the police, and will continue to do so. Again, our ultimate objective remains to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities.”
Google has found itself up against a heap of lawsuits and government probes ever since it acknowledged that its Street View service had gathered personal information from Wi-Fi networks as it went on photo tours of different countries. But the company has insisted that it did nothing illegal since the data collection was done accidentally and without its knowledge.
In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended its investigation because, the FTC stated, Google had enforced sufficient changes to its privacy policies and assured government officials that it will delete and not use the collected data. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), however, is still looking into the matter to determine whether or not Google violated the Communications Act.