The latest country to move against Google for allegedly harvesting personal information from their Street View cars is South Korea. Unlike Germany, who ordered the personal information to be turned over, or the United States, who are coordinating the effort of almost 40 state Attorneys General, Korea broke down the door. At least figuratively.
South Korean police seized computers at the search giants headquarters and other data devices. They also examined the Street View cars and interrogated Google employees.
Korea does not have its Street View mapping available to Korean Internet users yet. According to Reuters it has been prepping for its introduction. (From last year until May of this year, according to the New York Times.)
South Korea joins Australia, the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and Canada in investigating the process by which Google’s street-level camera cars captured information that was thought to include personal information such as emails. Google claimed to have possibly intercepted such information accidentally, as a result of code run in the cars’ cameras that had been inadvertently left in their computers.
The United Kingdom has ruled that no such information was captured by Google in their investigation.
Street view car photo by Paul McCann
