Google's South Korean Offices Raided

lee1 writes "The Seoul police raided Google's office in Seoul, S. Korea today on suspicion that they have illegally collected users' location data, without consent, for advertising purposes. Google claims to be cooperating with the investigation."

Comments

What a joke

[countertrolling]

I doubt Google would store anything 'illegal' on a South Korean server.. unless they're trying to hide it from the EU, Chinese, or American prosecutors.

The location data showed that they're all

[PylonHead]

At the local PC bang playing starcraft/broodwar?

ALL YOUR BASE

[rwa2]

... are about to belong to South Korea's finest. If your location data was safe with Google before, it belongs to the government now! :D

So... any guess as to whom the police be looking for that makes it worth raiding a Google office to bring down? Do the South Koreans even have their own version of mafia / yakuza / etc.?

Re:ALL YOUR BASE

[halfEvilTech]

Google wants location data to better sale advertisements, where governments want data because .

This is a pick your poison, but I don't trust any government with the amount of data that google has likely accumulated on us.

Tone down the paranoia

[Bucc5062]

What is going these days? People suing over location information, others running to buy tinfoil to make hats (and we know where you go to buy it) thinking there is this great conspiracy to know each individuals whereabouts in practical real time.

Are we all terrorists? Are we all so important that we need to hide from stalkers and three letter agencies? a very large portion of the population of this planet is not that important.

I appreciate privacy. I love my 4th amendment rights and I would not want any illegal use of data that would cause me harm including location data. If we are so consumed about this issue then lets get our representatives to enact laws to stop this practice. Require an "Opt In", not an "Opt Out". So we get Google and Apple to stop collecting data; that wont stop you from being tracked. Credit card receipts, security cameras, cell tower triangulation, the list is long on ways people and governments can figure out where you've been and what you've been doing. Want off the grid? Live in a forest and make it all yourself. Not my cup of tea.

There are ways to deal with this other then extreme, over the top methods like invading offices overseas or 50 million dollar suits (please...grow up). Like others have said, pull the battery, turn off a feature, write to the company and tell them to stop, but in the end, you bought into it. Me? I still carry a dumb phone, mainly use maps, and don't blab about every minutia of my life on the web. I may get a smartphone one day, I may rely on GPS systems one day, but when I do, the last thing I will worry about is whether Google or Apple or RIM or whom ever is saving my location. What I will get pissed about is if they sell that data and its used in a way that provides for illegal activity by people or governments against me or other people. That is facilitation of a crime and that should be dealt with firmly.

Re:Tone down the paranoia

[softWare3ngineer]

I don't buy the ' I'm not doing anything wrong argument'. these people will be up in arms when their house is raided after they order the wrong book or visit the wrong site. You may think that people are smarter than that, and I agree, but there is to much information for people to sift through. It will be up to a computer to put you on a search-me-at-the-airport list not a person.

Re:Tone down the paranoia

[G00F]

Corporation existence is to make money, it doesn't care how. It only cares of public perception causes its bottom line to change. Then these same companies pay billions to make it so there are no other choices but them. I'm not taking research or marketing, but patents, laws/politicians, lawyers, etc.

So how is any of that extreme? Anything less is ineffective and water off a ducks back. Heck nvidia spend over 500m in spare cash allocated for such uses. Big woopie, just a "cost of doing business". But at least there is a choice (bought my first ATI/AMD based graphics card and 2 others, since they pulled this crap) But if you cant switch away, or if enough people can't(or dont) the only thing you are left with is lawsuits.

Extreme is the fact that even thought I paid for my phone, I don't own it, and have to "break it" just to remove crap applications from amazon/skype/facebook/etc that are all allowed to track everything I do, everyplace I go. Extreme is the fact if they lose my information, I don't get compensated in anyway, but the problem is shoveled off as "my identity" was stolen.

And by the same token governments create a need for more government. They will find a need to use such data all the time, and it will be abused, it always has been and always will be.

No, being in control of your life and data about your life is not extreme.

Perhaps Google

[Presto Vivace]

does not know how to read Korean law. In any case it is nice to see a government taking this seriously.

• • I have said it before and will say it again, there is a fortune to be made by building internet software that would enable us to do all the things we want to do on the web in a way that preserves our privacy.

Re:Perhaps Google

[gorzek]

The vast majority of people do not care enough about their own privacy to make protecting it a viable business model. Sad but true.

Re:That time of the year

[ElectricTurtle]

The thing is that any contract that contravenes law is automatically invalid where it does so. If South Korea has laws that require a different form/method of disclosure/consent than the way Google implemented, TOS regardless they may have violated RSK law. IANAL, Korean or otherwise.

Daum was also raided for the same reasons

[John Saffran]

Hours later, SMPA investigators also conducted a surprise raid on the headquarters of local portal site Daum on similar suspicions. The investigators confiscated hard drives and other documents during their raid on Daum's Seoul office in Hannam-dong, central Seoul.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/05/03/28/0302000000AEN20110503005600315F.HTML

To put it bluntly, collecting personal data that isn't necessary is illegal in Korea .. like it should be everywhere else to be quite honest.

Not sure why so many people seem to be suggesting that Google (or any other company) should be collect all sorts of data at will.