Google’s high-flying Street View service faces tough scrutiny over privacy violation here.
Police raided its Korean branch office Tuesday and will look into information stored in seized computer hard disks to figure out what kind of personal information was gathered while Google prepared to launch its Street View program here.
Claiming that Google violated the country’s law on protection of telecommunication privacy, Google officials will be summoned after examining the data, said police authorities.
Many reports said Google may have had access to unencrypted e-mail, video downloads and any digital information passing through wireless routes in multiple locations.
“The police did not ask for any data or information from Google before paying us the very first surprise visit on Tuesday,” an official representing Google Korea told The Korea Herald a day after the raid on Wednesday. “We’re planning to fully cooperate with the police.”
The process, however, is not expected to pick up speed as Google Korea has already pointed out the data involving the controversial program is currently available at the company’s headquarters in California.
It now remains to be seen whether local police authorities will make further moves to have Google turn over data from the company’s overseas headquarters.
The Street View program features real-time photos of searched locations, allowing users to zoom, rotate and pan through street level photos of cities around the world, according to Google.
The images of cities in Korea were being collected since October until Google acknowledged months afterwards that it had “accidentally” picked up private information while filming streets with its camera-equipped cars.
What what was controversial was that Google got its hands on sensitive private information from the unencrypted wireless networks which were a part of the filming process.
The event, however, is not the first time that Google Korea has come contact with local government officials.
The global giant has been working with the state telecom and media regulator Korea Communications Commission since May.
The two sides were most recently discussing how the KCC could have access to the contents of Google’s gathered data.
“The two options were online sharing of the data and possibly visiting the California-based headquarters,” according to a KCC official.
The police, however, said it will continue with the investigation even if KCC and Google settle the matter.
Google has been experiencing difficulties with its Street View program in many countries, including Germany, Italy, Canada and Australia as they have claimed government-level inquiries must be conducted for possible breaches of data security laws.
On Tuesday, Google announced that it would launch the Street View program by this year in 20 cities in Germany, putting an end to the privacy row there.
But Germans will be able make a request to block out their homes on Street View ahead of the launch.
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