Google's Tracking Spells Trouble in S.Korea

[dknm]

SEOUL, May 3 (Reuters) -

Google Inc's Seoul office was raided on Tuesday on suspicion its mobile advertising unit AdMob had illegally collected location data without consent, South Korean police said, the latest setback to the Internet search firm's Korean operations.

The probe into suspected collection of data on where a user is located without consent highlights growing concerns about possible misuse of private information as the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets increases.

• AdMob collected personal location data without consent-police
  
• Probe adds to series of setbacks for Google in Korea
  
• Google confirms probe, says to cooperate (Adds police raid Daum office)
  

"We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission," a South Korean police official said.

In South Korea, Google is one of smallest players in the fixed-line Internet search market, but it enjoys a near 20 percent share in the mobile Internet market, backed by its Android platform.

Source

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

That could be damaging to Google's position in South Korea at the very least, though it could cause problems in other parts of Asia as well seeing as China is quite good at locking down their internet.

[Cheatyface]

Silly Google, don't they know only governments are allowed to collect user's data w/o consent? :whistle:

[Ryoken]

Do they really thing Google would keep any of it's information in one of the main offices ? Seriously.. It's on the cloud somewhere encrypted.. SK's are in the US, the US is in the EU, The EU's is in Asia, etc..

[Growled Member]

Why just Google? Maybe all American based companies are spying on them. ;)

[Anibal P]

Why just Google? Maybe all American based companies are spying on them. ;)

Google are the new whipping boys internationally, it used to be MS till it became a joke, now it's Google's turn. I'm still waiting for the "investigation" the EU will launch soon enough